South Colorado Springs homeowner deals with buildup of sewer gas from nearby wastewater project
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — A south side resident contacted KRDO13’s The Road Warrior about a smelly situation that most of us haven’t experienced.
A buildup of sewer gas inside his home.
Richard Jenkins lives in the 300 block of East Las Vegas Street and said that he’s been dealing with the problem since Labor Day weekend.
That’s when two elderly relatives living with him, both with health issues, called him at work to alert him; when he came home, they said the stench forced them to sit outside on the front porch.
“We opened the windows and used fans to vent the gas,” Jenkins recalled.
When crews from Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) arrived, he continued, they told him that one of the roof vents wasn’t working properly because the base was rotted.
“I paid $250 of my own money to replace it,” Jenkins said. “The smell went away for a week, but came back stronger than ever.”
Crews conducted two smoke tests, he explained, to get a detailed look at how the gas was venting out; sensors also detected high levels of sewer gas outside.
In a response to The Road Warrior last week, CSU said that the problem was connected to an increase in the flow of a bypass pumping operation in an ongoing wastewater project several blocks east of the home.
The sewer gas decreased once crews reduced the bypass flow, CSU said.
According to CSU, crews excavated the sewer lines outside the home, installed a backflow valve, and replaced a valve under the kitchen sink that blocks sewer gas from flowing out.
Since then, Jenkins said that the situation is “90% better.”
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