Raw sewage causing stink for homeowner
A Christchurch man is sick of dodging raw sewage in his backyard.
A blockage in the pipes below Phil Arps’ Rowcliffe Cres property, in Avonside, has caused brown sludge to flow from his drain multiple times.
He claims the fault, which he says has spilled faecal matter on several occasions since 2010, lies with Housing New Zealand (HNZ), which manages the property next door.
A HNZ spokesman said they had been ‘‘very willing’’ to investigate the matter, but Arps had refused their contractors entry.
According to Arps, the blockage was somewhere between his house and HNZ’s property. A Christchurch City Council spokesman said the blockage was caused by ‘‘a foreign object that originated from private property’’.
On Friday night, the drain in Arps backyard was ‘‘bubbling over’’. He called a plumber, who he said was contracted to HNZ.
‘‘He had a look and said, ‘that’s category five waste mate, you shouldn’t be mucking around with that’,’’ Arps said.
The plumber returned on Saturday morning and planned to pump water through a line ‘‘shared by at least 14 people’’.
Arps asked the plumber to plug the drain on his property because he ‘‘knew there was going to be a problem’’, but no plug was placed.
‘‘It flooded my entire yard, went past my dog kennel [and] it was flowing out of the two sumps down the side of my house,’’ he said.
Unprocessed sewage and toilet paper was strewn across Arps’ concrete yard and lawn.
‘‘It was chaos. I had my dogs running through it, I had my kids outside, my four youngest – one of them ran right through it.’’
A camera inspection in 2010 found a misaligned pipe between the properties, and sewage bubbled up to the surface several times in 2013 and 2014.
‘‘They [Christchurch City Council and HNZ] keep telling me, you deal with it, we’ll reimburse you. The plumbers I used sent them – the state and the council – the video footage from the inspections I paid for and the clearances I paid for,’’ he said.
‘‘We got nothing back for that, it was just a headache because they pass it between each other arguing over whose fault it is.’’
A HNZ spokesman said they were ‘‘very willing to investigate this matter and have attempted to engage with Mr Arps’’.
‘‘He has refused us access to his property so we have been unable to look at what solutions are possible,’’ the spokesman said.
‘‘Although our contractors believe the problem has occurred on land not owned by Housing New Zealand, we are willing to help Mr Arps and the relevant authorities address this matter.’’
HNZ installed portaloos at Arps’ and their own properties ‘‘to help alleviate the issue for now’’.
Arps said his toilet facilities had since been restored, but ‘‘for how long’’. ‘‘Who knows how long until it happens again, they just don’t seem to want to know anything about it.
‘‘Every time it rains the silt and stuff comes up from the cracks. All I can do is get the hose on it and try to wash it away.’’
City council three waters and waste technical services manager Tim Drennan said a blockage on a ‘‘shared lateral’’ had caused a gully trap to overflow.
‘‘The council’s contractor agreed to clean up the area due to health risks associated with sewage and also because it wasn’t immediately clear as to what had caused the blockage,’’ he said.
‘‘Further investigations showed a foreign object that originated from private property had blocked the lateral on the street.’’