Woodland Hills : Court Orders House Leaking Sewage Vacated

The narrow, tree-shaded roadways that meander through an expensive neighborhood overlooking the Woodland Hills Country Club have an appealingly quaint and rustic look.

But when raw sewage began flowing down one of the streets three months ago, homeowners decided the neighborhood had become a little too rustic.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County health officials went to court to force a Saltillo Street homeowner to plug an aging septic system that had gushed into the street and neighboring yards since April.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Michael Harris’ house from being occupied until the sewage-disposal problem is corrected.

Judge Miriam A. Vogel also instructed the Department of Water and Power to cut off water service to Harris’ house and authorized county health inspectors to cover holes that are exposing the septic system at the residence.

The court order was like a breath of fresh air to Harris’ neighbors on the 4600 block of Saltillo Street in Woodland Hills.

“It’s been awful. We’ve had to keep our windows shut all summer because of the stench,” said Gordon Paschal, who lives next door. “We can’t even go out on the patio.”

Paschal’s home lies downhill from the broken septic system. Some of the raw sewage that poured from the cesspool when toilets were flushed, clothes were washed and baths were taken oozed through Paschal’s basement garage wall.

From his garage’s roof, Paschal has a clear view of open septic tanks in his neighbor’s yard and in the floor of a patio sun room.

“It flowed right through my garage. I’ve tried to disinfect the walls and floor. I’ve washed and washed this place. But I don’t even want to touch my tools now,” he said.

In court documents filed Tuesday, such fears were said to be well-founded.

Dr. Stephen Waterman, chief of acute communicable disease control for the county’s Department of Health Services, wrote that “careless discharge of human waste has repeatedly” caused outbreaks of disease. He stated that bacteria and viruses that transmit such diseases as typhoid and hepatitis “can cause serious and sometimes fatal illnesses.” There were no reports of anyone in the neighborhood becoming sick from the sewage.

Leela Ann Kapur, a lawyer for the county health department, said it is unusual for officials to have to go to court over a leaky residential septic tank. But Harris and those living in his home repeatedly failed to heed orders to replace the 40-year-old septic system, Kapur said. They also failed to pay to connect to a city sewer line that extends to within several hundred feet of the Saltillo Street home, she said.

Harris himself proved elusive.

“It was very frustrating. They refused to show up at a city attorney’s hearing. They refused to tell us how to reach Michael Harris,” Frank J. Davanzo, a senior deputy county counsel, said of the house’s residents.

Neither Harris nor his lawyer attended Tuesday’s court hearing, and they could not be reached for comment.