Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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Amanda Butterfield Reporting Raw sewage floods a Riverton neighborhood, pouring into at least 18 homes.
Steve Willey: "Raw sewage bubbling into your basement, it was the grossest thing you'd want to witness."
Craig White/South Salt Valley Sewer District: "That's a large number. Usually on a sanitary sewer backup it's one or two homes."
It's the largest back-up the South Valley Sewer District has ever dealt with.
People in the affected area are worried about their health, worried enough that they started calling us wondering what's going on. So we went to find some answers.
South Valley Sewer District has yet to determine who's going to foot the bill for clean-up. In the meantime, residents had to call in cleaning companies themselves, and sign a paper stating they would pay if the district doesn't.
Right now, it's all one big mess for everyone.
This is the sixth home this clean-up crew has been to today.
Ernie Drury/Home Flooded: "They're downstairs disinfecting, taking old carpet out."
Ernie Drury's house is just one of 18 that flooded Sunday afternoon. Sewage was coming out of the toilet.
Ernie Drury: "Shooting up like Old Faithful, like a geyser."
His neighbor's home was hit, too.
Steve Willey/ Family Home Flooded: "Coming out of the shower, the drain, in the furnace room, with the most toxic smell you can imagine."
Ernie Drury: "Step inside and smell for yourself."
Ernie's other neighbor's house flooded too.
Just imagine, your basement floods with toxic waste, you have to get all your stuff out, call for a cleanup crew, and even worry about hepatitis shots.
Steve Willey: "We had to run downstairs into it to see what was going on."
Steve Willey: "With that, you splash in the water and it's all over you."
On top of all that, you can't get any answers on why this happened or who's going to pay for it.
Ernie Drury: "I've tried. You get different stories from different people."
Steve Willey: "We hope they're investigating. We haven't heard anything."
Gilbert Dewolf/Home Flooded with Sewage: "We're hoping they take care of it."
We got an answer from the general manager of South Valley Sewer District.
Craig White/South Valley Sewer District: "Gravel road base and asphalt that was in a manhole."
That's what caused the backup.
Craig White/South Valley Sewer District: "Probably someone was grading the road, hit a manhole, moved it off, and put dirt down the manhole by accident."
There's a lot of building going on here, and the road is being widened. That's why there are so many trucks.
But who's going to pay the clean-up crew the estimated 2-thousand dollar bill?
Craig White: "That's what we're still investigating. We've turned this over to insurance."
If the city or district doesn't pay the cleanup crew, Ernie, Steve and Gilbert will have to.
Ernie Drury: "They had us sign a paper that if they don't get paid, we have to pay them."
Ernie had to sign, or else there'd still be three feet of sewage in his basement.
Ernie Drury: "It's a pain in the you know what, but you've got to deal with it."
The Sewer District expects the investigation to be done in the next two or three days.
As for whether home insurance will cover it-- it's considered flooding, and none of the people we talked to have flood insurance.
