Stinky Situation Continues

Heavy rains bring big problems for a Bossier Parish town. Raw sewage is gushing out of a pipe and into a Benton, Louisiana yard. "The house is very, very low in that area" says Benton Maintenance Superintendent Johnnie Wright. In home video you can see water rushing out of a sewage clean-out pipe, bringing the chance of Hepatitis A and B, e-coli and more. According to the Department of Environmental Quality just a few feet away there is a ditch that flows into the Black Bayou, a popular recreational spot. "This is the first occupants at this residence that have ever complained about this" says Wright. He says they tried to fix the problem in May with a sewer check valve that only allows the water to flow in one direction, but the homeowners said "no." "That keeps it from blowing off and into the ditch, keeps it from flowing out of my drain, but it also denies me the use of any water facilities in this house until that pressure drops enough for that valve to open back up" says homeowner Bryant Brewer. "We tried to do something. She [Mrs. Brewer] refused it. She flat out refused it. We cant force her to do something" says Wright. Now he says, they are calling in back-up. "We called our engineer and we called in some local plumbers, and the engineer, we leave that up to him, whatever we do is going to be by recommendation of the engineer." Wright gave NBC 6s Jenna Zibton the engineers number but he says hes not aware of the problem and is in Houston undergoing treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Environmental Scientist Manager Otis Randle says D.E.Q. is continuing their investigation. He says a compliance order to clean-up the mess will be issued with a potential penalty attached. Randle says the problem happens more often than you might think "It is the fact that the systems are older. A lot of them are poorer systems, they cant afford the updates and the upgrades to keep the system where it needs to be." Randle says theres not a "real solution" to the problem, you have to fix the system.