[Durham INC] Others had brown water over past few days?

[John Martin]

I think brown water is the least of the problems.  This is what happened to one family in Northgate Park as reported on the neighborhood list serv:

"On Tuesday evening at 7pm, Chris and I came home to find that sewage had backed up into our downstairs toilet and bathtub, overflowing and then draining into the a/c vent, down the duct work, into the HVAC unit, and out into the basement, which our sump pump was desperately trying to keep dry.

The plumber discovered it was a blockage in the city's sewer line. We were
the last house before the blockage and thus all of the sewage from the
other houses on our "line" backed up into our house. To my knowledge, no
other houses were affected.

Homeowners insurance (USAA) has denied our claim because the event that
caused the damage occurred off our premises.

Our bathroom will have to be stripped down to the studs and rebuilt. The
HVAC unit is ruined and will need to be replaced. Since the unit was
running for several hours while there was sewage running through it, all of
the duct work will also have to be replaced. We're looking at a minimum of
$10,000 in damage, and it could easily be doubled if the subfloors are also
damaged, etc.

The city has a program where we could collect up to $15,000, but it is a
1-time program that requires us to sign away future legal rights (in case
this ever happens again), in exchange for not having to prove fault or
negligence on the part of the city. Our only other recourse is to file
suit against the city and prove negligence.

We are still determining what to do. I have learned that there are things
called backflow prevention valves that would keep this from happening. I
would suggest everyone look into it.

Meanwhile, we don't have heat downstairs (which is all of our living space
except our bedroom) and the bathroom downstairs is unusable, but we're
making do. And (most of) the smell is gone."

This is an absolutely outrageous situation, and the City's offer ("we'll pay for the damage we caused, if you don't make us pay for it the next time we do it") is equally outrageous.  


--- On Mon, 2/25/13, Laura Drey <lauradrey at ncrrbiz.com> wrote:

> From: Laura Drey <lauradrey at ncrrbiz.com>
> Subject: [Durham INC] Others had brown water over past few days?
> To: "InterNeighborhood Council" <inc-list at DurhamINC.org>
> Cc: "Amy Blalock" <Amy.Blalock at durhamnc.gov>
> Date: Monday, February 25, 2013, 10:03 AM
> > I am wondering if over the past
> few days if others ... have had brown water in their
> bathroom sinks? I have noticed that brown water has happened
> in the past. I realize that this may be due to the city's
> flushing out our water system. 
> > 
> > I wish that in the future someone from Durham's Water
> Department or Public Affairs Department would give residents
> advanced warning prior to flushing out the system and tell
> us which part of town to expect the brown water to occur. I
> understand when brown water is due to an emergency situation
> and in these cases that time would not permit for people to
> be informed in advance. Ideally I would like for someone
> from city government to send out a press releases to the
> newspapers and perhaps also circulate the information to the
> impacted neighborhoods' list serves. 
> > 
> > I understand that I that asking someone from the city
> to keep residents informed is yet another task to take on. I
> appreciate the services the city employees provide. I expect
> that there may be times when city staff members are over
> extended. 
> > 
> > Laura
> 
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