Home ruined by sewage, again

I read with great interest your Monday editorial on sewer overflows and the closing of parks over Labor Day. I had to laugh because last Thursday night eight houses along Warren and Laurel in Everett also had sewer overflow into their spaces … the second time in five years … and it closed down, in my case, my 1,600-square-foot, two bedroom (one is my master bedroom), one bath, laundry room, and great room with 1.5 inches of sewer water spread over most of the area. And, my space will be closed a lot longer than the beaches. It was a great way to ruin my Labor Day!

Overflows should never happen and they did not happen in all the years before the city started replacing the sewers. I’m not interested in improving benchmarks, I’m interested in my house not being flooded with sewage “every once in awhile” because the city initially did not put in a system that would adequately carry rainwater and sewage together.

Five years ago I sat in a meeting held by the city engineering department and they listened to our concerns after the first sewage backup, but that’s all they did was listen. We were told that there was absolutely no way there would ever be another sewage backup like we experienced in 2008. The sewage overflow last Thursday evening was even worse than in 2008. The “ideal” is that this should never happen to anyone!

Gini Ostrom

Everett

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