LOCKWOOD — Residents in a Lockwood neighborhood are growing increasingly worried about health risks related to a prolonged sewage leak that has been seeping into the alley for a long time.
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Steve Nave, a 68-year-old homeowner, has been at the forefront of the battle against the sewage leak. He lives directly across the alley on Bluebird Street from the source of the leak.
“We got about 300 gallons of sewer down the alley,” Nave said.
Nave has put up a sign that says, "Sewer Lake" with an arrow pointing down the alley to where the large puddle of sewer is piling up.
"I put it up there because it just felt like nobody wanted to pay attention," he said.
The foul smell and constant flow of wastewater are not the only issues troubling residents.
"When I'm in there working, when it's a hot day, if it's over 80 degrees, I get nauseous, dizzy, my lips start tingling," Nave said. "I'm tired of feeling sick. I feel run down all the time. For the last month, I felt like I'm tired. I have to force myself to want to eat because my sense of smell's gone now."
Nave's son Matthew Nave lives just down the road from his father.
“Every day for the last two years straight almost we have raw sewage running down the alley,” Matthew said. “It's bad. It puts off methane, gas, the neighbor, she just recently moved in. She complains of headaches.”
The wastewater is spilling out from a cover that warns, “Danger… Fatal Poison Gas.”
Nave has tried for months to get someone to come fix the problem.
"I have called the health department at least five times," he said. "I've called just about everybody in our local government that I could call."
He said someone has recently come out to drain the septic tank, but just days later the water started leaking out again.
"They must have a water leak up there because there's no way that septic tank should fill up overnight," Nave said.
A resident gave MTN News contact information for the park's property management company, Quality Property Management. A representative who answered a call from MTN News took a message, but no one called back to give comment.
