Homeowner says heavy rains cause sewage water to flood home

A family living in central El Paso says their home floods with sewage water when the city gets hit with heavy rain.

“Our basement is flooding again and it smells like a sewer,” homeowner Andrea Aguirre said.

The home sits on the 1700 block of Yandell and the family says this is the second time it’s flooded in less than a year.

“El Paso Water Utilities came in and cleaned it out and said it would never happen again and it’s happening again,” Aguirre said.

ABC-7 crews went to the home and saw the water seeping through the concrete stairs leading to the basement. The water then pools down into the cellar. “It looks like toilet paper that is coming into my house,” Aguirre said. “Last year they explained to us that it would have been filtered by the time it came to our house and that it was residual water, but it does not look like it. It looks like toilet paper in my eyes.”

Aguirre’s husband Ramon says he just wants the issue fixed. “As far as having to deal with this over and over again, I am pretty much done with it.”

Crews have vacuumed out the water and disinfected the area, but the Aguirre family says it’s a temporary fix for a major problem.

A contracting party with the gas company was unearthing pipes near the Aguirre home Monday. The site’s foreman told ABC-7 they were called out because there may be conflicting lines with El Paso Water Utilities.

ABC-7 reached out to Water Utilities and they released the following statement:

“EPWater assisted the resident with cleaning up a sewer backup issue in March 2015 and on July 23, 2017. The incident yesterday was due to a contractor boring through one of our sewer lines. We provided the resident with contact information for the contractor that caused the incident. EPWater has not had any communication from the residence about issues with frequent backups.”