Sewage Overflow From Toilets Has Residents Fuming

About half a dozen residences in Hillcrest were inundated with raw sewage Wednesday before city water utility crews were able to stop the flow, roughly 11 hours after the flooding started, officials said.

The flood of sewage was probably caused by a collapsed main pipe, Kurt Kidman, spokesman for the city Water Utilities Department, said. The flow began late Tuesday, and city crews arrived on the scene in the 3500 block of Curlew Street at 10:30 p.m., Kidman said.

Kidman called the breakdown rare, considering that the city must maintain more than 2,500 miles of sewer pipelines. A portion of a street had to be dug up for workers to reach the pipe.

But some residents were critical of the time it took for city crews to respond and stop the onslaught.

“The gobs of sewage and other stuff just kept flooding out,” said Anthony Bianco, who faced a massive cleanup with a living room deep in untreated sewage. “The smell got worse right away.”

So much water was flowing from Bianco’s bathroom toilet that he had to open a back door to allow the waste to drain off.

Water utility workers said there was no way to shut down the flow of sewage through the pipeline; the flow continued as toilets were flushed elsewhere.