Portland Sued Over Sewage Spewing Into Residence

Portland, OR, is facing a lawsuit from residents who say municipal workers failed to stop sewage from spewing into their apartment building.

The lawsuit, filed July 24, “claims that the owners of the 52-unit Melcliff Apartments in the Belmont neighborhood discovered they had a problem at about 9 p.m. on Dec. 6, 2015. A city sewer line had clogged, and the resulting pressure blasted off the cap of a pipe in the building's daylight basement and was causing raw sewage to shoot into the air,” OregonLive reported.

“After trying to solve the problem for two hours, the owners called the city's emergency sewer line at about 11 p.m.,” the report said, citing the suit.

Tim Gray, co-owner of Melcliff Associates, told OregonLive: "It was a Sunday night in early December, raining like crazy. The raw sewage is gurgling up like three feet in the air. I kid you not, the city says 'We can't come out tonight. We've had budget cutbacks. We're not allowed to work overtime.'"

That didn’t sit right with Gray and his co-owners. They are suing the city for $91,000. The suit said the owners called the city three times, and the problem was resolved after the third call, over ten hours after the first attempt to get help.

"Within twenty minutes the city crew stopped the sewage backup from spewing into plaintiff's property," the lawsuit said, per the report. "The city worker handed a business card to the plaintiff and stated that the city was totally at fault and that risk management for the city should be contacted."

The city’s legal office did not comment on the suit, according to the report. Authorities have placed an emphasis on cutting budgets this year, according to reports.

It’s not the first time Portland has been sued over its response to sewage emergencies.

“Apparent negligence on the part of employees doing sewage maintenance has resulted in an $81,000 lawsuit after a homeowner claims his property was flooded with raw sewage,” KOIN 6 reported last year.

To read similar stories visit Water Online Sewer And Sewer Line Maintenance Solutions Center.