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HARRISVILLE, Weber County — Several homeowners in Harrisville woke up to a nasty mess earlier this week as raw sewage flowed into their basements. Now many of them are frustrated at city leaders who are telling them the problem is out of their control.
But both the county and the city governments are blaming the flooded residents' neighbors upstream.
Harrisville resident Judy Lemmon says as the rains came down Monday morning her basement floor drains started overflowing with sewage.
"It was thick, muddy poop," she said. "You know, it was sewer. The whole house smells terrible from it."
Several of her neighbors on Independence Boulevard discovered the same thing. "We were left with just sludge mess," Brandy Seat said.
Now they're asking Harrisville City to fix the problem so it won't happen again, but city leaders say it's not their fault. Even if it was, they say couldn't do anything if they wanted to.
"The sewer system that backed up is Central Weber Sewer District main line," explained Bill Morris, Harrisville's city administrator.
Administrators say the problem is too many homeowners send their flood waters to the wrong place: down their sewage line. If they would just send them down the storm drain instead, it would just end up in a retention pond.
Morris says the only thing Harrisville City can do is ask people to stop it. "We're encouraging people who are illegally hooked into the sewer line, please disconnect. Tie into the storm drain line and separate those two systems."
The Central Weber Sewer District has contacted its insurance company, which will review whether affected homeowners will get any compensation.
Lemmon says that provides very little comfort for now. She thinks the city should fix their line so it won't get overwhelmed with county sewage.
"They told us that it wasn't their problem, but it ruined everything in our basement," she said.
Email: manderson@ksl.com
