MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Raleigh woman is living a nightmare and has been battling overflowing sewage in her home for more than 20 years.
WREG first told you about Pamela Thompson in 2007. Eight years later, the city still won’t fix the problem.
Thompson does not want much, just a house she can keep carpeted. Every time the area gets a heavy rain, the sewer and everything in it overflows into her house on Brickwood.
“You don’t know if you go to bed… when you wake up, is it going to be up to the receptacles again,” Thompson said.
It is a 20-year-old problem. In that time, Thompson has asked dozens of politicians and agencies for help, including the City of Memphis, Mayor A C Wharton’s office, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Jim Jenkins, the owner of Southern Plumbing, told WREG he has helped Thompson free of charge because he feels so bad for her.
He blames her home’s geographical location and the city’s hesitancy to take responsibility, something he saw with his own eyes when a public works crew came out in 2013 to look at the sewer system.
“When you’re in a low area and it won’t drain with gravity, then they put in a lift station to pump the stuff out. I don’t know if there’s a lift station in that area,” Jenkins said.
He said in 2013, the city’s crew admitted the issue was their responsibility.
“At first they said, ‘It’s not our problem.’ I said, ‘Yes, it is.’ But they kept checking and said, ‘You’re correct. It is the city’s problem. We’re going to take care of it,'” Jenkins said.
The city refused to do an on-camera interview with WREG, but did send us letters explaining what it did. Crews cleaned the sewer lines several times, and a private contractor even assessed the system last month.
The city said it removed close to 21,000 pounds of debris, including grease, rags, and other trash.
Jenkins questions how that much junk made it there in the first place.
“I think somehow the system is overloaded. Is the sanitary sewer too small? I don’t know,” she said.
He said there is only one explanation that makes sense.
“There are some areas in this town where the sanitary sewer and storm sewer are connected,” he said. “That’s against the code now.”
WREG made calls to the city engineer’s office to see whether the lines are connected in that area, but no one ever got back to us.
Jenkins worries the city is neglecting Thompson, because she has been so persistent and maybe, because of where she lives.
“I don’t know if they’ve just written that particular section of our city off,” he said. “If they have, it’s a crying shame.”
Thompson said she has even been forced to live in a tent in her backyard before when the sewer overflowed.
The city offered to reimburse her $4,500 for her carpet, an offer she finds insulting.
“If I sign that claim, then it’s like I’m saying it’s OK,” she said.
She tried to sell the home, but realtors say the current sewage problems must be fixed first.
Now, she’s begging the city to buy it, so she can afford to move.
“I don’t want to keep having to deal with this on and on and on for what’s rest of my life,” she said.
It’s a request Jenkins calls perfectly reasonable.
“If they can’t repair the problem and guarantee her that this will never happen again, then in my opinion the city should purchase that house from her,” he said.