Santa Fe's faulty sewers inspire social change.
For some Santa Feans, 2006 was a year filled with crap.
In June, SFR first broke the story that Nina Hart, a local musician, had come home to a house
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filled with sewage due to an exploded city sewer line [Outtakes, June 28: "
"].
Hart, her partner, Matt Deason, and their neighbor Robert Wilson soon learned that not only had their houses been decimated, but getting compensated by the city for the damage was going to require extraordinary perseverance and-ultimately-litigation.
Hart's lawsuit claimed the city had neglected to properly maintain the sewage pipe in her neighborhood
and should pay the cost of damages. But the
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city, via City Attorney Frank Katz, cited a state law that caps the amount of money a municipality can pay in such cases [SFR Talk, July 12: "
"].
The law, the New Mexico Tort Claims Act, was passed in the late 1970s. It caps compensation for property damage at $100,000 for a single incident. SFR subsequently reported that other residents, such as those at Park Plazas, also had been impacted by exploded sewer lines and were lobbying for the law to be changed [Outtakes, July 19: "
"].
Soon, Hart and Deason-both local musicians with the group BING-joined the activism, staging a protest in front of City Hall [Outtakes, Sept. 27: "
"]. A benefit for the couple (the Pink-Boot-a-Thon, named after a salvaged pair of Hart's shoes), organized by fellow musician Ross Hamlin, was held soon after [Outtakes, Sept. 13: "
"]. The benefit, at which many local musicians played, raised approximately $2,500-not enough to make up the difference between Hart's settlement with the city ($55,000) and what the damage actually was (approximately $85,000), but enough to spark a sense of community
togetherness. "After thinking about it, my
sentiments were that it was more of a communal gathering than a fund-raiser," Deason says. "Hopefully it will send a message to the powers that be that the community won't take their shit. People will come to the rescue of others, rather than the way the city
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sees us as an annoyance that won't go away."
Wilson hasn't settled with the city yet, and is living in his home on and off while working on its repairs.
As for actually changing the law, state Rep. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, plans to sponsor a bill in the January legislative session to raise the cap mandated in the Tort Claims Act. "We're not trying to force something drastic," Wirth says, "but it's time for the limit to be increased."
That won't help Hart and Wilson, but it could at least keep other residents, in the future, from having to repeat their hardships. "It's a full-time job just to get my home and life back in one piece," Hart says. "But I feel like I have to complete the work we've started with the city and the state. I just can't see this happen to other people. It's great when community supports you, but I feel that the government and insurance companies should be taking just as good of care of us as our friends have."
