Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993 TAG: 9305100065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For as long as 18 hours at a stretch, Kinsey's family could not take a shower, wash the dishes or flush the toilet.
The inconvenience was minor, however, compared to the possible alternative: a basement full of raw sewage.
Kinsey and 18 neighbors had their service turned off to protect them from sewer lines that, in past storms, have overflowed and forced waste water into their homes.
Roanoke County officials say the lines are adequate for the more than 500 homes in the Penn Forest drainage area. They say the system is overtaxed because at least 100 homeowners violate an ordinance by tying sump pumps, French drains and gutter downspouts into the sanitary sewer system.
In a downpour, ground water and surface runoff from these illegal connections overwhelm sanitary sewer lines and inundate about two dozen homes in the lower end of Penn Forest.
Homeowners who have been complaining about the problem since the development was built in the late 1960s finally may get some relief. The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors is proposing fines to force homeowners to reduce illegal discharges into the sewer system.
If approved, several hundred Penn Forest residents - many unaware they are in violation - would have to spend up to several thousand dollars each to patch foundation walls, replace faulty basement drains or redirect discharges from sump pumps.
Cave Spring District Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix believes homeowners will accept the repair costs once they realize they are partly responsible for their neighbors' plight.
"How would you like stuff like that ankle deep in your house?" Minnix said.
Homeowners would be given six months to make repairs after being notified by the county. If problems continue, the county could slap offenders with monthly surcharges of up to $200.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing Tuesday on the proposed ordinance, which may be the first of its kind in Virginia.
Public Works Director Cliff Craig joined the county staff eight years ago, just in time to be christened by the November 1985 flood.
His office fielded flood-related complaints from scores of angry residents, but none of them any angrier than the folks on the lower end of Penn Forest whose basements filled with sewage.
Cornelius "Neil" Birkhoff had lived at Tanglewood Drive and Meadowlark Road long enough to avoid the worst. A back-flow valve that he had installed in the early 1970s kept the sewage out of his basement.
Last week, Birkhoff repeated his claim that the sewer system was not designed properly; and he accused county officials of covering up for developers, who sold the system to the county 15 years ago.
"If it was inadequate 19 years, ago, it's certainly overloaded now," said Birkhoff, a retired insurance auditor who once sat on the Roanoke County Public Service Authority board.
Craig disagreed. "If we were designing the system today," he said, pointing to a map of the area, The valves have stopped the overflows, but residents still were hesitant to be interviewed for this story because they feared it would hurt their property values. "it would look just like this."
After the 1985 flood, the county inspected the concrete lines with remote-control cameras and patched cracks and broken joints.
The system continues to be overtaxed, Craig said, because many residences are dumping more than waste water into the sewer system.
Craig said to consider these facts:
Homes in the area use about 150,000 gallons of water each day to wash clothes, take showers and flush toilets.
The sewer lines that carry water away from these same houses handle more than 650,000 gallons of water during heavy rains.
Craig said this excess ground-water and surface runoff is what puts pressure on the sewer lines, forcing waste water into homes on the lower end of the system.
The Utility Department is conducting house-to-house inspections in Penn Forest to determine how the water is getting into the system.
Crews look for cracks in basement walls that allow ground water to trickle into basement drains, breaks in lateral connections that allow ground water to flow into the line or sump pumps tied into the sewer system.
Craig said the most common violations are basement drain pipes that have been chipped at the bottom to allow ground water - which otherwise would press against the basement floor - to flow directly into the sewer.
Drain pick holes are illegal, but they are a common trick to keep basements dry. Replacing the pipe could cost $800 to $1,000, Craig said.
After each inspection, the Utility Department uses a computer model to come up with a conservative estimate of how much ground-water or surface runoff a house would put into the system during a heavy storm.
Nearly 20 percent of the first 120 homes inspected were found to contribute at least 500 gallons of ground-water or surface runoff per day during a heavy storm.
Craig was stunned by the results.
"We started in the high end where people shouldn't have a problem with ground water. I thought we would find 3 or 4 percent with a problem. Nineteen percent shocks the daylights out of me."
The numbers will grow, Craig said, as crews move down the hill, where keeping a basement dry is a challenge and more homeowners have illegal connections.
Slogging knee-deep through sewage is not part of County Administrator Elmer Hodge's job description.
But Hodge has bailed waste water from several Penn Forest basements through the years to demonstrate the county's concern.
Hodge thought his days of slinging foul-smelling buckets were over when the county patched up Penn Forest sewer lines in 1987.
Complaints fell off sharply. Then came the flood of April 1992.
"We were down in a basement," Craig said. "Elmer turns to me and says, `Cliff, we've got to do something.' "
As a temporary solution, the county installed shut-off valves on the sewer laterals leading to about 20 homes on Hummingbird Lane, Tanglewood Drive and Meadowlark Road. When rains begin to overload the sewer line, an alarm alerts a utility crew to come and manually close the valves.
The valves have stopped the overflows, but residents still were hesitant to be interviewed for this story because they feared it would hurt their property values. Most houses in the neighborhood are valued between $85,000 and $100,000 for tax purposes, according to county real estate records.
"Something needs to be done, but we'd rather not have the attention," said one man who lives on Tanglewood Drive.
Birkhoff agreed to an interview because he believes the county will not solve the problem unless it overhauls the sewer system.
Some share Birkhoff's skepticism, but Craig said the cutoff valves have made a true believer out of one family on Hummingbird Lane.
The family's basement quickly filled up with ground water the first time the county turned off its sewer service. Only then did the family learn its basement drainage system fed directly into the sewer line.
"You get 10 houses like that and - Kerwham! - the sewer line is full," Craig said.
Most violators do not realize they have a problem. Many times the conduit for ground water, such as a cracked sewer lateral connection, is not visible. And some may have hired basement-sealing contractors who made cheap - and illegal - alterations.
Craig said the county Utility Department will begin putting people on notice after the Board of Supervisors enacts the stiff enforcement ordinance Tuesday.
Craig said repairs will cost most homeowners less than $1,500, but a handful will pay considerably more to correct more serious problems.
The countywide ordinance provides no exceptions for people with financial hardships.
Minnix, the Cave Spring supervisor, said the ordinance is fair because it gives people up to six months to make the repairs.
"I think people will understand," he said. "If they can picture themselves in someone else's situation, with a bathtub full of someone else's sewage, they will."
by CNB