MEMPHIS, Tenn. — People living in southeast Shelby County are dealing with a smelly situation.
There appears to be some kind of leak near a subdivision off East Shelby Drive and Germantown Road that is forcing folks to hold their noses.
People who live there reached out to WREG for help.
Beyond a few trees behind the East Shelby County Library you’ll find a muddy, murky mess.
“It’s real bad. It gets in my house and everything. My next door neighbors they complain about it the smell too as well and I said, ‘Man I don’t know what we’re going to do,'” Clarence Gibson explained Monday afternoon.
Besides it smelling awful the water in a ditch looks disgusting too. When you take a close look you can see the water has a green tint to it and pieces of paper building are also building up.
Gibson says the neighborhood has been putting up with the stench for the last two weeks but he has other concerns.
“Yes, animals. Peoples’ pets come sometimes and drink down by the ditch. I don’t want your dog or some animal to come down here drinking that water. ”
The area sits right on the Memphis City limits and Shelby County line. It’s tough to tell who is responsible for what.
A spokesperson for Shelby County says this section of the sewer is maintained by the city of Memphis.
A spokesperson with the city of Memphis says they’re having their public works team look into it to see if it is their responsibility.
Gibson says he’s put in calls to MLGW and was given another number to call for help but was never successful getting through to anyone.
In the meantime, he thinks he’s found the source and the problem.
“A lot of that water coming through that ditch and mud and stuff is getting down into that sewer and it’s stopping it up, and it’s causing all this debris to back up out of the manhole.”
His hope is to try to get something done before it reaches Nonconnah Creek which is not far away
We’ll keep you updated.