Pipe Spews Raw Sewage Around Yakima Neighborhood

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Story Published: Oct 20, 2007 at 7:05 PM PST

By Aaron Kellogg

YAKIMA -- Raw sewage started spewing out of a pipe on a street behind the Wal-Mart in Terrace Height Friday. Neighbors say it's the second time the pipe has bubbled over in the last week.

Hundreds of gallons of rain water mixed with the sewage. The putrid combination started leaking onto Chalmers street after grease blocked the wastewater pipe.

"It's just foul and you can smell it walking out my Dad's door," Tina Norman, who's family lives in the neighborhood said.

People here first smelled the problem. Then they saw it.

"It shoots right out of the ground; 3 to 4 inches -- maybe a foot," another homeowner said.

Some people even felt it.

"Someone was driving down the street and drove through one of the mudholes and splashed the person with sewer water," Norman said.

By lunch time crews managed to suck most of the water off Chalmers street. If it's any comfort, crews say it's not all sewage; it's about 90 percent rainwater and 10 percent untreated waste.

Neighbors to the pipe say they're concerned the sewage will leak into their wells. They say the sewage leaks keeps happening and they claim that what should be in their toilets is flowing out their faucets.

"The hot water is foul you can barely brush your teeth in it," Norman said.

Waste water crews claim it's not necessarily their fault. Well problems and nearby septic systems could be to blame for the smell in the drinking water.

Wastewater crews expected the Department of Ecology to take a look at water contamination issues in the neighborhood. If people in the immediate area are concerned about the quality of the water they should boil it. City water is not affected.

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