(WSVN) - Imagine raw stinking sewage being pumped near you. Thousands and thousands of gallons, month after month. It’s been happening in Fort Lauderdale and, needless to say, many people are not happy about it. Here is Patrick Fraser with his report, “Down the Drain.”
It starts at your house with a flush. Within seconds, it’s gone, on its way to a treatment plant.
But unfortunately, in Fort Lauderdale, it’s diverted Brian Weiler’s way.
Brian Weiler, sick of sewage: “And the smell is horrendous. It makes you want to vomit.”
Brian Weiler is one of dozens of people who have to smell sewage (maybe your sewage) at their businesses in Northwest Fort Lauderdale.
Neighboring employee: ‘When I get here at 7, they are there. When I leave at 5, they’re here.”
The company is hired by the City of Fort Lauderdale. Trucks, each filled with 4,000 gallons of raw stinking sewage, bubbling down into a pipe in the middle of the street, right in middle of a business district.
You don’t have to guess to know what that smells like.
Brian Weiler: “Absolutely, it chases customers away. They don’t want to wait in a room where they smell feces on a daily basis.”
Day after day this has been going on. And now month after month…
Brian Weiler: “It’s been seven to eight months that they have been dumping in the drains.”
The sewage is being pumped out of a line a few blocks away in a residential area.
Brian Weiler: “It’s disgusting.”
Sucked up from Northwest 14th Terrace, then driven to the business section on Northwest Fifth Avenue and pumped back into the sewer line.
Brian Weiler: “And we’re are the ones who get stuck smelling it. We have continuously complained to the city, we get no response.”
Sewage problems are a major headache for Fort Lauderdale, with 7News reporting on several major broken pipes in the past few months.
Brandon Beyer, 7News reporter: “Skyforce HD over a massive sewage main break.”
Resident: “As I came around, all the sewage just exploded. There was all this brown sewage everywhere.”
Vanessa Medina, 7News reporter: “The second sewage leak happening just east of Las Olas.”
As for this leak, we asked the City of Fort Lauderdale to talk to us about this sewage problem. They didn’t want to do an interview on camera, but told us it was created by a busted line that needed to be replaced. The sewage was then picked up on one side of the broken pipe and brought to the other side of the pipe.
A spokesperson wrote the city’s aim was to “stay as far as possible from restaurants and residential areas.” He added, “I know the trucks are inconvenient/unpleasant, but better than allowing sewage to back up inside homes and businesses.”
The Environmental Protection Agency told us there are no violations since the sewage is being pumped from one manhole to another.
Brian Weiler: “I want them to stop. It’s interrupting my business. It’s causing me loss of business.”
The city told us they planned to have the sewer line repaired and stop dumping sewage this week in front of these businesses.
Brian will believe that when he cannot smell it.
Brian Weiler: “I’ve gone home at nighttime, and my girlfriend will ask me, ‘Why do your clothes smell like poop?'”
Months of terrible odors, as each day this stench goes down the drain.
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