Pascagoula neighborhood concerned with sewage issues

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WLOX) - What would you do if raw sewage flooded the street in front of your home? That’s what some homeowners in Pascagoula are dealing with, and they claim it’s been happening for decades.

Just three days ago, Dion Williams couldn’t stand where he is now without wading in raw sewage.

“We moved here in 2003 and we’ve been dealing with this issue with raw sewage flooding,” Williams said. “In this area right here this thing bubbles up. I’ve videoed it, I’ve sent it to the city. It fills up right here and bubbles out and floods this entire circle.”

“You can actually see, excuse my language, feces and toilet paper and all kind of stuff. You can actually see what it is. I pour bleach out, I sweep, I clean, I do everything to try and make it pleasant for myself and my neighbors,” Williams said. “I can’t even joy my grandson to come out and play. That’s the part I really hate.”

Williams says when the city does come out crews only put a bandaid on the problem.

“They may spray chemicals after it dried up, and then a week alter it’s back. There’s no resolution of actually what we’re going to do,” he said.

Joe Jackson lives next door. He’s a Vietnam Veteran with health issues that he is afraid are being made worse by the sewage in his front yard.

“There’s raw sewage bubbling up from that hub which says wastewater,” Jackson said. “Why is wastewater bubbling up and running off into what should be stormwater? I’ve been here since 1995. How long is this going to go on? For anyone like myself that has a compromised immune system or you have elderly people who once lived here, how is that helping them? How is that helping us?”

At the end of the day, both Jackson and Williams just want the problem fixed.

“Somebody just give us some answers. Just say, okay, this is why this is happening. And we’re going to do this to correct the problem,” Jackson said. “I know they won’t be able to do it right away, but after almost 30 years?”

“We pay our taxes, we’re hard-working people,” Williams said. “I love this neighborhood; I’ve been here for twenty years. I want to stay here. Just give me some answers, that’s all I ask.”

WLOX News reached out to Pascagoula City Manager Michael Silverman for comment. He said the overflow is caused by grease poured into drains by homeowners and the issue is not an easy fix, because the sewage lift station cannot be accessed by a vacuum truck that would clean the clogged drain. Plans are being developed to move the drain, but the project is in the early stages, Silverman said.

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