VERSAILLES, MO -- When it rains in Missouri, it seems to cause some type of flooding somewhere, and that can lead to problems with sanitary sewer systems.
Residents of Versailles are having problems with city sewage back ups.
One viewer called us to ask for our Fact Finder Team to see the mess first hand.
"There were feces floating and you can tell it was raw sewage,” Versailles Resident Vivian Watts said.
Vivian Watts moved to Versailles in May and within two months her basement was flooded with a stinky mess, not once, but twice.
"July 11th it was totally flooded. We thought it was rain water coming in from outside,” Watts said. “Then we figured out it was sewage water backing up from the city."
Watts said that the sewage came in from all the drains in the basement making it about knee deep.
"The stool looked like a fountain and the sewage water was in the bath tub. It was coming out of everything,” Watts said. “Every where there was a drain down there it was coming out of it."
Watts said twice she asked the city for help and all they could recommend was that she install something in her sewer line to stop the flow.
"If you put a thing in you're sewer, which they call it a flapper thing. If you put that in your sewer it can hold the sewage from backing up in your home," Watts said.
So far the item put in the sewer line is working.
But Watts is left with a horrible moldy mess and she wants help from the city to clean it up.
I spoke with Versailles’s mayor and he says Watts isn't the only one with concerns about the sewage system.
"I know there have been some recent homeowners that have had some difficulties with water and sewer issues. We’re addressing those,” Versailles Mayor Terry Silvey said. “We have been working on them for quite some time. As a city we have an engineering firm whose sole duty is to reevaluate and check out all of our sewer lines and sewer plant treatment facilities."
But in the end, Silvey says it's up to each homeowner to install equipment to prevent back-ups like Watts’.
Watts said she has filed a lawsuit against the city of Versailles because of the sewage back up issue.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG