Busted city pipe causes sewage to flow into public housing units

EVERETT, Mass. — A busted city pipe caused thousands of gallons of sewage to flow into public housing units in Everett.

A day later, neither the city nor landlord fully cleaned it up.

But after calls from Boston 25 News, the Housing Authority, which owns and operates the Duncan Road Public Housing apartments, got a crew out to the units and reached an agreement with the tenant.

"The smell you can smell right now is so overwhelming to me," said Rosemarie Paley of Everett.

A stench began festering after a city sewer pipe burst Thursday near the public housing units.

Paley and her elderly mother live here. Workers needed to get to the sewer line through their basement, but once that happened, the sewage backup from the street poured in.

"In a matter of 20 minutes, there was over 2,000 gallons of sewage in my basement," she said.

Several units were impacted. A company was brought in to pump the water from this basement a lot of that wound up on the lawn.

But the problem, the sludge in the basement, still remains. The basement door can't be opened without a strong smell coming through.

Paley's mother has a lung ailment. She lives upstairs.

"She’s hiding up in her bedroom by a window that’s open because the smell is so toxic," Paley said.

Paley called the city and landlord to get her basement sanitized. But she says each passed the buck to the other.

The Housing Authority maintenance crew poured bleach on it.

After Boston 25 News asked if they'd bring a professional company in to sanitize the area, the Housing Authority director said they will cover the cost for a professional cleanup crew to respond.

Cox Media Group