PLATTSBURGH — Several Waterhouse Street residents say a rain storm in August left their basements flooded with raw sewer water and now hope the City of Plattsburgh will pay for the cost of cleanup.
David Curry and his wife, Deborah Zinser, along with neighbor Ray Dubuque — all residents of Waterhouse Street in the city’s Ward 2 — said the storm caused a sewer backup in their homes that required prompt, professional remediation due to unsanitary conditions.
Zinser said one neighbor even had feces floating in their basement.
“We really have no option to put in a sump pump and pump it out,” Curry said at the city’s Common Council meeting Sept. 5.
“This is not stormwater; this is not rainwater; this is sewer that backs up into our basements. It’s not a gutter problem; it’s not street drainage; it’s just coming in (from) the sewer line.”
This is the third sewer backup to occur there in 12 years, they said.
“Two were associated with contractors working on the sewer line during sudden thunderstorms with inadequate pumps to respond to the sudden water load. Remediation for those two events were covered by the contractors or their insurance,” Curry said.
He said the most recent event had the least amount of rain, which made him question if the system was damaged by some recent work that was done to it.
COSTS
At a council meeting earlier this month, Curry said after the backup happened in August, he called the city’s Department of Public Works and they immediately came out to inspect it.
Curry said the DPW supervisor on call had advised him and others who were affected to contact a local water damage restoration professional service to take care of the cleanup and said the city would reimburse them for remediation costs.
“Several of our other neighbors weren’t so sure the city would reimburse us, and they chose to do the cleanup themselves,” Curry said, which he and Dubuque opted not to do.
“Because of the need for prompt action, we had to sign a contract stating that we would be responsible for the bill and submit the claim to the city for reimbursement.”
However, he said the city’s insurance company, Tokio Marine, has since denied his and Dubuque’s claim for reimbursement, further stating the city was immune from responsibility.
“Ray and I acted in good faith on the words of the Public Works supervisor.”
Dubuque, a former teacher, said he lost vintage items this time around that could not be replaced.
“What they went through, it’s horrible. It’s the worst case scenario,” Jacob Avery, the councilor for Ward 2, said Thursday.
“Mr. Dubuque lost so much (items) of his career, basically, leading into it. Just personal items that we all have in our basement that we don’t think of until (something like this happens).”
Avery said himself, Mayor Chris Rosenquest and members of the Public Works recently met with the residents affected by the storm and had productive conversations toward a resolution.
“We met with a couple of the residents, outlined and showed them the pipe that’s in question,” Rosenquest also said about the meeting.
“I talked about the plan for combined sewer overflow separation in their neighborhood, why they’re being impacted.”
“I’m hoping we’re moving in the right direction,” Avery said.
Avery said he’s unsure how the possible reimbursement will play out for the residents but believes there’s an appeal process they can look into.
Rosenquest said he doesn’t know the details of the insurance company’s denial and what the next step forward may be either, but he assured that the city is and has been working on fixing the sewer lines on Waterhouse Street to prevent future incidents for some time now.
“There’s money in the budget this year and money in the budget next year, so it’s not something that all of a sudden we’re trying to fix,” he said.
“We know that it’s been a problem in terms of this combined sewer overflow separation. That came out of a 2023 study that studied hydraulic capacity throughout the entire city. We know that there are some neighborhoods where this is more concerning, where it impacts residents and businesses, but it’s also something that we studied and we put money in the budget to fix this year and … for next year to continue that work.”