My next-door neighbor has a backed-up (or broken) drainage pipe. A pool of gray, murky, stagnant water has slowly accumulated, for a couple of weeks, right at base of her garage door. With the recent heat and winds, this fecal-smelling water can be smelled up and down our back driveway.

Ours is a neighborhood of rowhouses. I can't open my bedroom or kitchen windows, for I don't want to breathe in that foul smell!

On Friday, I typed and left the following note on her back porch railing AND on her front door:

Hello:

Please procure a contractor to drain the accumulated stagnant water on your property. With the heat and winds, this water can be smelled up and down the block. This water smells very terrible and is a health hazard. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

The neighbor has parked her car right in front of the garage, so she is very aware of the water and the smell!

She left town earlier this week with her house still in this condition; we haven't seen her or her 12-yr. old daughter since Monday.

(This is the same neighbor who threw out her cat two years ago [for contracting fleas] and left out in winter to starve until I reported the incident to fellow freecyclers. I fed the cat until a kind freecycler from Bensalem came down to Mt. Airy and rescued the cat. The cat now lives with a family in Cape May, NJ.)

What should I do? Call the police? Call a contractor and pay him to drain this water? I'm scared to touch the water. Who knows what diseases may be lurking in that water! It's supposed to rain Saturday. I don't want that nasty water washing over to my property!

Thanks for your advice.

You need to contact License and Inspections. You can file a complaint on-line. Try using this link, and then follow the links for complaints.

http://webapps.phila.gov/li/

I scanned the Public Health Department section of the City's website, but it isn't clear that they have a clear mandate in this area.

I believe L&I should be responsive. You could also contact your councilperson....Donna Reed Miller's office is known for her great constituent service (kidding all...) You may want to try working with one of the Council Persons at Large like Rizzo.

Good luck....you may want to pour some bleach water in the offending water to kill any of the bacteria and virus sure to be lurking.

Finally, if your neighbor needs a reliable, local and relatively cheap plumber, she can contact Fritz Woodley...he replaced my broken curb trap about 4 years ago, for half of what my neighbors have paid for the same job with the bigger local outfits. I found him from a recomendation from the guys at Able Plumbing supply on Germantown Avenue....always the best place to get recomendations for reliable contractors. His number is 215-768-7330

It's also a health issue on the west nile virus front. There is a number to call for that, not sure were, do a search. As the other person said, dump a cup of bleach in there to kill the bacteria, but don't go nuts. You only need a little bit, the rest will just pollute.

As far as the stagnant water, it should drain on it's own, unless it's being fed by something, so just draining it will do nothing. Sounds like this is drain line problem.

__________________
Chris
www.thestockgroup.net
Environmentally Friendly, Before it was Trendy!

Previous posters have given you great advice. I'd also recommend talking to other neighbors about the situation. The more people that tell your bad neighbor that letting her house leak waste water is unacceptable the better.

And I'm sorry that you have to live next to such a horrid person. The cat story is infuriating!

I'd also recommend contacting the Phila. Health Dept. You can tell them about the sewage issues and west nile potential.

If your neighbors are not living in the house and not using their toilets hopefully the problem will not worsen. It is something that the home owner should address ASAP. Good luck.

and be careful w/ the bleach; if someone else pours pine-sol or something in it, the mix could become toxic.

Here is the info for the City's public health complaint line. It's my understanding that standing water issues are taken seriously b/c of the potential west nile outbreak.

Public Health Complaint and Response Activities

The Office of Food Protection receives thousands of public requests for service annually. Many of these requests include citizen complaints concerning general insanitary conditions observed in food establishments. A computer-based data management system, presently under development, will facilitate the tracking of food related complaints, department response activity and trends in consumer awareness of public health issues pertinent to food protection concerns. Also, the data management system will facilitate coordination of requests for service in conjunction with prioritized inspection activities. The computer based data management system will maintain an up-to-date inventory of food establishments and will facilitate OFP activity analysis.
Complaint Intake Telephone Number (24/7)

215-685-7495

First- if I were your neighbor I'd be think I'd be offended about the notes something about it rubs me the wrong way.

None the less, the same thing happened to us (pooling fecal-smelling water by the garage door). Sounds like she needs her line drained, thats what we needed. And the line that the plumber accesed for us was at the front of the house. (Who would have thought??) First we called Best choice..they fixed it once and it happened again. We called them again (since they fixed it before) and they claimed we needed the whole line leading out to the street replaced (~$4000 job). Untrusting we called Roto Rooter who fixed it and we have not have a problem since.

Since she seems to be ignoring the problem I'd follow the advice of other to contact L&I.

just curious: why would you be offended by Krimpet's note? it states the facts, is non-judgemental and non-threatening.

It just seems a little uptight "please procure a contractor..." I'd just be more miffed that my neighbor didn't just talk to me about it face to face. But I don't know the history- maybe they don't get along- maybe he knows she's missing a few marbles.

I'd also be annoyed signs were posted on my doors... thats what mail slots are for. If I were the neighbor I'd leave a sarcastic reply on every door & window his house.

My neighbor curses at her 12-year old child for various infractions and occasionally leaves her alone in the house into the wee hours of the night, so I felt a note about her drain would be less confrontational than a "face to face" discussion.

After reading my note, my neighbor procured a maintenance man the very next morning. He poured dirt into the water (and managed to track some of the mud onto my property). It took a few days for the smell and water to disappear. She still hasn't fixed her drain. I did contact L&I as a follow-up; I'm not sure if the inspector came out while I was at work.