In Gert Town, less than a block from Norwood Thompson Park, homeowner Ryan Burdick is dealing with a smelly problem.
“I would say very stinky,” said Ryan Burdick.
He says the odorous ordeal first started four months ago when he noticed water pooling in the front yard, and it has been stinking up the place ever since.
“You have sewerage, you have toilet paper, you have condoms,” he said, pulling debris from the sizeable hole in his yard.
“We had our plumber come out, and he dug a hole,” said Burdick.
“I was thinking it’s going to be easy fix, replace my pipe. It was a terracotta pipe,” he continued.
At that point, the plumber gave him a swift response.
“Hey, that’s city property, we can’t touch that. It’s illegal. You have to get the city to come out,” he recalled.
While it doesn’t look good, Burdick tells me the issue is about more than just aesthetics.
He says the issue has actually become a health and sanitation issue, with raw sewerage often filling the hole in his yard and leaking on the street.
“It smells like rotting flesh feces. It’s a huge sanitation issue, especially when it rains,” said Burdick.
“That hole will fill up, and it just travels into the street. Cars will drive by, they’ll pick it up with their tires, fling it in their car well. I mean, you’ve got the park right there. You people have to walk down the sidewalk, and it’s a huge sanitation issue,” he continued.
From the odor, the sewerage debris, and foot traffic in the area, Burdick says solutions from the city of New Orleans have not passed the smell test.
“So they’re snaking a pipe that doesn’t exist, and they did that three times,” he said.
The Sewerage and Water Board issued the following statement regarding the hole:
“Our crews completed repairs to the sewer line located on the public side of the property in early October. Today, our crews conducted an additional inspection and found no evidence of sewer issues on the public side of the property. Our team will return to the location to complete the sidewalk restoration at a later date. The average timeframe for sidewalk restoration is approximately 31 days. Residents can track the status of open work orders via our Work Order Dashboard at www.swbno.org/Projects/WorkOrderDashboard.
“As always if residents are experiencing a water, sewer or infrastructure concerns, please contact 52-Water and we will send an inspector to assess the location. The hotline is open 24/7 every day of the year.”
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