Residents cry foul over sewer backups.
When the toilets start talking at Park Plazas, it usually leads to trouble; sewage spews out of pipes and bathrooms and swamps homes with enough viscous slurry to make even the most seasoned garbage man woozy.
For some residents of Park Plazas, a housing complex near the intersection of Rodeo Road and Camino Carlos Rey, the clanking latrines and subsequent sewage explosions happen all too frequently. Over the past 16 years, one particular section of Park Plazas has
***image1***
been ravaged by four major sewage floods because of what residents claim is a shoddy nearby City of Santa Fe sewer line.
These residents say a state law that limits reimbursement in such accidents is the reason they haven't been fully compensated by the city. The New Mexico Tort Claims Act, passed during the late 1970s, limits the government's liability for property damage from a single incident to $100,000.
The voices at Park Plazas are adding to the clamor over city sewer backups and the state law in question. Fellow Santa Fean Nina Hart had her home on Juan de Dios Road decimated by a clogged city sewer line last February [Outtakes, June 28:
]. Hart is suing over the incident and says the $55,000 the city is offering falls short of the estimated $85,000 in damages to her home.
Two Park Plazas residents, Michael Meyer and María Salazar, have been working with State Rep. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, to get the Legislature to re-examine the law.
"The current cap is just not fair," Meyer, whose home was flooded with sewage in 2001 and Dec. 31, 2005, says.
Regarding the most recent incident, the sewage caused an estimated $27,000 worth of damages but the city only paid $18,500 because three other units flooded, and the city needed to divvy up $100,000 worth of claims. Salazar, whose home suffered more extensive damage than Meyer's, was reimbursed $46,000 by the city, she says, but believes she should have been paid $56,000.
"Everything downstairs was destroyed and had to be ripped up," Salazar says. "It took until mid-June for it all to be fixed."
According to Diane Freburg, manager of the Park Plazas Community Services Association, the 442-unit complex has been at the mercy of a chronically clogged city sewer line that runs through the area. Park Plazas management has pressed the city to maintain the adjacent sewer line, which gets backed up with grease and roots. This past spring, she says, the city replaced 500 feet of pipeline to help remedy the problem.
"It's difficult to see the residents get flooded over and over again," Freburg says.
Freburg notes that the Community Services Association pitched in $16,000 to help clean up Salazar and Meyer's units.
City Attorney Frank Katz says he isn't familiar with the Park Plazas backup because it happened before he became city attorney. Katz says the city recently sent out mailers informing homeowners of supplemental insurance that covers sewage backups.
Costy Kassisieh, director of the city's Wastewater Management Division, was looking into the details of the Park Plazas sewage backup at press time. He says the city has replaced many old sewer lines of late, so backups are less frequent, occurring four or five times each year.
Now with Rep. Wirth's involvement, the issue could receive statewide attention. Wirth is looking at expanding the law's scope so that, for example, Salazar and Meyer's floods could be considered separate incidents. He also wants to increase the $100,000 cap.
"Their frustration is understandable, and I'm going to see if I can fix it," Wirth says.
Katz says Wirth's approach "makes sense," but cautions, "one needs to keep an eye on the bottom line and the opening of the public's purse in situations like this."
Meanwhile, Meyer and Salazar met recently with Hart to hash out strategy in approaching the Legislature. The three women also commiserated over their damaged homes and the way their lives have changed.
"It was really empowering talking to people who want to take a stand on this issue and don't want to be complacent," Hart says. "I think unless you've gone through this you have no idea what this is like."
It's a sentiment Meyer and Salazar know all too well.
Says Salazar: "My hope is to see the law changed so this doesn't have to happen to anyone ever again."
