City crews called out to fix smelly sewage problem - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

City crews called out to fix smelly sewage problem

Posted: Updated: May 27, 2012 08:27 PM CDT
A large sewage pipeline that runs through a drainage ditch in the Morningside neighborhood is busted, allowing waste to flow freely through the canal. A large sewage pipeline that runs through a drainage ditch in the Morningside neighborhood is busted, allowing waste to flow freely through the canal.
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) -

Not everything is "coming up roses" for some ArkLaTex residents on this Memorial Day holiday weekend. That is because of a smelly problem running through some backyards. A large sewage pipeline that runs through a drainage ditch in the Morningside neighborhood busted, allowing waste to flow freely through the canal.

"It's scattered from Morningside all the way to the back of Super One Grocery, where this canal runs. And, the smell is awful, and we have Memorial Day coming up, and people are trying to cook outside. To have that smell in the air would be quite difficult," said Calvine Fergins.

Calvine Fergins says he called Shreveport Water and Sewerage several times on Saturday in hopes of getting someone to address the damaged line. What he was unaware of was that the city did come out to clean out the backed up sewerage line.

"They did find a hole in our sewer pipe, but sewer was not running out at the time. They made a work order for our zones to fix it when they come back off of the weekends," said Brian Radford with Shreveport Water and Sewerage.

But, by the next day that same sewage line got backed up again, once again spewing human waste into that drainage ditch. That is when KSLA News 12 got involved. We called the city back out to take a look at the sewerage line.

"I've got two crews working right now, relentlessly, to get the sewer main unstopped, and of course, I've got my maintenance crews in route to make repairs to the sewer main itself," said Radford.

Radford says despite their efforts this will not be a quick fix. It appears as if a large piece of pipeline will need to be removed from under part of the concrete ditch.

Until crews can return on Tuesday, after the holiday, a make-shift solution involving sandbags was put in place. The sandbags are being used to divert the drainage water from flowing into the open gashed pipe.

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