Garden District neighborhood complains of raw sewage in streets

Garden District resident Lori Pierce is hoping it won’t rain today. That’s because when it does, she says, raw sewage comes pouring out of a storm drain in the middle of the road at Tulip and 22nd streets where work on a Sanitary Sewer Overflow project has been ongoing for months. “You’ll see tampons, toilet paper—all kinds of frightening things come popping out of that grate—and they all go straight into an open freshwater grate,” Pierce says. “It’s about a foot deep. It will take your car out. I know people who have gotten raw sewage in their cars.” Pierce and others in the neighborhood have contacted their Metro Council representative, Tara Wicker, as well as other city-parish officials and the Environmental Protection Agency about the sewage problem. Residents are also upset about open pipes in their yards that provide access to the sewer line, though Pierce says some have been capped. In an email response to concerns raised by Pierce and others, acting Department of Public Works Director William Daniel says, “Though work in the Tulip Street area has been completed, the most dramatic improvements within this project, which are immediately downstream of this area, have not yet been completed.” Once the entire sewer overflow project is complete—which Daniel estimates will be “by the end of 2014″—the system should be able to handle up to 4.4 inches of rain over a 12-hour period without overflowing. Daniel adds SSO projects completed since 2008 have reduced overflow events by 68% in the city-parish, and all projects are on track to be completed by the EPA deadline of Jan. 1, 2015. —Steve Sanoski