ARANSAS PASS, TX — Residents on West De Berry Street in Aransas Pass are dealing with a messy situation after sewage water backed up into at least one home, causing extensive damage.
The elderly homeowner's residence was filled with sewage water in every room, requiring professional cleaning and significant repairs.
Tom Collins with Alliance Carpet Service was called to clean up the contamination.
"I got here this morning at 9 o'clock this morning when I got the call," Collins said.
Collins worked late into the evening to sanitize the entire house, explaining the severity of the situation.
"Blackwater is the worst in water damage because it contains human feces and everything," Collins said.
Research shows that "black water" damage can cost up to $75,000 to repair, not including the cost of replacing damaged personal items.
"We come in and cut the walls out. To what we call a 2 ft flood cut from the ground up 2 ft, take all the baseboards, and the doors off because they got contaminated as well," Collins said.
According to Collins, this isn't the first sewage backup incident in the area.
"I've done probably 3 or 4 of them for the city so far, and this is one of the worst ones. They've had issues before," Collins said.
David Flores, City of Aransas Pass Public Works Director, acknowledged that similar incidents have occurred previously.
"What happens when the sewer gets stopped up, the sewer starts building up and in this case it got into the homeowner's property," Flores said.
The city has a plan to address the damage.
"We'll get a contractor to do clean up, change baseboards, the flooring, anything that gets damaged. If the homeowner takes charge and they hire a contractor, we'll have them send us an invoice and we'll take care of it from there," Flores said.
City crews identified a pool noodle as the cause of the sewage backup.
