Sewer backup floods 8 homes
By Diane Lilli, Staff Writer
GLEN RIDGE, NJ - Eight homes on Adams Place were unceremoniously doused with raw sewage, when a main sewer line broke and spewed waste on three separate occasions last week.
A state of emergency was declared as emergency teams and borough personnel tried to stem the problem and help residents deal with their soiled property.
Michael Rohal, borough administrator, said the initial source of the problem was on Hawthorne Avenue.
“We sent public works down to Hawthorne last Wednesday, but the lines were then clear,” he said.
A plumber placed a call to the borough when he noticed a problem on Aug. 13. Rohal said the town was planning to send cameras deep into the pipes, in order to locate any problems. The pipes in Glen Ridge are routinely checked on a quarterly basis.
Unfortunately, the main sewer line on Adams malfunctioned before the problem was discovered.
To the horror of residents all along Adams Place, raw sewage started to bubble up from pipes into basements, toilets, sinks and bathtubs.
Resident Megan Giulianelli happened to have relatives visiting from Texas at the time of the problem. “Basically, it exploded in our toilets,” she said. “It flooded our basement, and we lost everything there — sofa, coffee table, everything down there.”
Besides the disturbing smell, residents had to deal with the problem of cleaning out their soiled possessions so that ServPro, a cleaning company called in by the borough, could come in to spray and treat the wet areas after they were pumped.
Michelle Schaller, assistant to the owner of ServPro of Montclair/Orange, said the problem on Adams Place was an unusual one.
“This is something odd,” she said. “You usually don’t get eight houses that back up at once.”
Giulianelli decided to spend two nights in a hotel, so that her two children and visiting relatives could avoid the mess.
“The smell was just so awful,” she said.
Although the town responded quickly, Giulianelli said she believes the cleanup could have been achieved much quicker if more than one truck had responded.
“ServPro came, and they sent one crew, which took two to three hours to pump out each basement,” she explained. “Some people had to stay in their houses with this raw sewage overnight.”
Rohal said the cleaning service sent the first team within one hour, but had to wait for more help as teams became available.
“We did call ServPro, who cleaned and sanitized,” he said. “They were the only ones that said they could respond in a timely manner. The first truck came within an hour, and then the other two crews showed up as they became free.”
To add insult to injury, one home had the sewer lines back up into her residence not once but on three separate occasions.
According to three police reports filed Aug. 13, 16 and 17, after the first incident, the next two occurrences were severe enough to shut the power and gas off temporarily while crews feverishly worked to clean up the mess in one house on Adams Place.
Plumber Ahmed Sharis of Valley Sewer and Drain said the cleanup in this residence was one of the most awful he’d ever encountered.
“It’s not the worst, but one of the worst I have ever seen,” he said. “It was not a normal circumstance. It was caused at the street level, not at the home level.”
Along with help from the Glen Ridge Public Works Department, manhole covers were opened up on Chapman Place and Adams Place. Upon closer inspection, and with the use of the television cameras, the source of the problem was discovered.
“This was due to the infrastructure of an old piece of pipe,” Rohal explained. “The pipe dipped, and when the sewage came out, it did so with force. Also, we found some roots and rags clogging up the pipe.”
Workers from public works, who normally have weekends off, assisted residents during Saturday and Sunday as they removed property from the flooded areas of homes, so the homes could be pumped free of sewage.
Borough Council member Art Dawson, who was on call in case of emergency during the weekend because both Rohal and Mayor Peter Hughes were on vacation, responded to the sewer line break and kept a late night vigil on Saturday evening.
“I went down again on Saturday night and the Montclair Fire Department said they couldn’t pump because it was sewage,” Dawson explained. “It was nasty.”
Along with Lt. Paul Bruno, who came in on his weekend off, Dawson went door to door checking on the situations in the homes on Adams Place on Saturday night, after the reoccurrence of sewage leaking into one home on Adams Place.
“Fortunately, it was only that one house with flooding again that night,” Dawson said.
Rohal said that after ServPro was called in to clean and sanitize, the borough put out a call for bids to replace the damaged area with 17 new feet of pipe.
“We solicited three companies,” he said. “Two were in the $10,000 range, and one was approximately $5,000. The company chosen for this work is Joe Perone of Belleville. He has done work in town on six or seven projects already.”
Offcials planned to install the new 17-foot stretch of piping this past Wednesday.
Rohal, along with Hughes and Dawson spoke to residents of the block Tuesday. For more than an hour, Rohal fielded questions, offered insight into the situation, and even instructed the residents how to file an insurance claim.
Numerous residents said they were pleased with the response of the police and public works departments, as well as their administrator.
“We think the town was extremely proactive in dealing with the situation,” said Scott Robik, an Adams Place homeowner and engineer, adding that the dip in the road was probably a contributing factor.
Neighbor Pat Preblick said she appreciated having the people who run the borough spend the time to help out the afflicted area.
“I was very grateful to see the quick response of Rohal, Hughes, and Weisenbach (the head of public works),” she said. “They have had clear heads in a crisis.”
Looking around at her neighbors, as they calmly discussed plans with one another, Preblick smiled and added, “There are much worse things in life than this.”
The Glen Ridge Paper will keep readers updated on this story as events unfold.
Diane Lilli can be reached at 973-763-0700, ext. 117, or essexcountyb@thelocalsource.com.
A state of emergency was declared as emergency teams and borough personnel tried to stem the problem and help residents deal with their soiled property.
Michael Rohal, borough administrator, said the initial source of the problem was on Hawthorne Avenue.
“We sent public works down to Hawthorne last Wednesday, but the lines were then clear,” he said.
A plumber placed a call to the borough when he noticed a problem on Aug. 13. Rohal said the town was planning to send cameras deep into the pipes, in order to locate any problems. The pipes in Glen Ridge are routinely checked on a quarterly basis.
Unfortunately, the main sewer line on Adams malfunctioned before the problem was discovered.
To the horror of residents all along Adams Place, raw sewage started to bubble up from pipes into basements, toilets, sinks and bathtubs.
Resident Megan Giulianelli happened to have relatives visiting from Texas at the time of the problem. “Basically, it exploded in our toilets,” she said. “It flooded our basement, and we lost everything there — sofa, coffee table, everything down there.”
Besides the disturbing smell, residents had to deal with the problem of cleaning out their soiled possessions so that ServPro, a cleaning company called in by the borough, could come in to spray and treat the wet areas after they were pumped.
Michelle Schaller, assistant to the owner of ServPro of Montclair/Orange, said the problem on Adams Place was an unusual one.
“This is something odd,” she said. “You usually don’t get eight houses that back up at once.”
Giulianelli decided to spend two nights in a hotel, so that her two children and visiting relatives could avoid the mess.
“The smell was just so awful,” she said.
Although the town responded quickly, Giulianelli said she believes the cleanup could have been achieved much quicker if more than one truck had responded.
“ServPro came, and they sent one crew, which took two to three hours to pump out each basement,” she explained. “Some people had to stay in their houses with this raw sewage overnight.”
Rohal said the cleaning service sent the first team within one hour, but had to wait for more help as teams became available.
“We did call ServPro, who cleaned and sanitized,” he said. “They were the only ones that said they could respond in a timely manner. The first truck came within an hour, and then the other two crews showed up as they became free.”
To add insult to injury, one home had the sewer lines back up into her residence not once but on three separate occasions.
According to three police reports filed Aug. 13, 16 and 17, after the first incident, the next two occurrences were severe enough to shut the power and gas off temporarily while crews feverishly worked to clean up the mess in one house on Adams Place.
Plumber Ahmed Sharis of Valley Sewer and Drain said the cleanup in this residence was one of the most awful he’d ever encountered.
“It’s not the worst, but one of the worst I have ever seen,” he said. “It was not a normal circumstance. It was caused at the street level, not at the home level.”
Along with help from the Glen Ridge Public Works Department, manhole covers were opened up on Chapman Place and Adams Place. Upon closer inspection, and with the use of the television cameras, the source of the problem was discovered.
“This was due to the infrastructure of an old piece of pipe,” Rohal explained. “The pipe dipped, and when the sewage came out, it did so with force. Also, we found some roots and rags clogging up the pipe.”
Workers from public works, who normally have weekends off, assisted residents during Saturday and Sunday as they removed property from the flooded areas of homes, so the homes could be pumped free of sewage.
Borough Council member Art Dawson, who was on call in case of emergency during the weekend because both Rohal and Mayor Peter Hughes were on vacation, responded to the sewer line break and kept a late night vigil on Saturday evening.
“I went down again on Saturday night and the Montclair Fire Department said they couldn’t pump because it was sewage,” Dawson explained. “It was nasty.”
Along with Lt. Paul Bruno, who came in on his weekend off, Dawson went door to door checking on the situations in the homes on Adams Place on Saturday night, after the reoccurrence of sewage leaking into one home on Adams Place.
“Fortunately, it was only that one house with flooding again that night,” Dawson said.
Rohal said that after ServPro was called in to clean and sanitize, the borough put out a call for bids to replace the damaged area with 17 new feet of pipe.
“We solicited three companies,” he said. “Two were in the $10,000 range, and one was approximately $5,000. The company chosen for this work is Joe Perone of Belleville. He has done work in town on six or seven projects already.”
Offcials planned to install the new 17-foot stretch of piping this past Wednesday.
Rohal, along with Hughes and Dawson spoke to residents of the block Tuesday. For more than an hour, Rohal fielded questions, offered insight into the situation, and even instructed the residents how to file an insurance claim.
Numerous residents said they were pleased with the response of the police and public works departments, as well as their administrator.
“We think the town was extremely proactive in dealing with the situation,” said Scott Robik, an Adams Place homeowner and engineer, adding that the dip in the road was probably a contributing factor.
Neighbor Pat Preblick said she appreciated having the people who run the borough spend the time to help out the afflicted area.
“I was very grateful to see the quick response of Rohal, Hughes, and Weisenbach (the head of public works),” she said. “They have had clear heads in a crisis.”
Looking around at her neighbors, as they calmly discussed plans with one another, Preblick smiled and added, “There are much worse things in life than this.”
The Glen Ridge Paper will keep readers updated on this story as events unfold.
Diane Lilli can be reached at 973-763-0700, ext. 117, or essexcountyb@thelocalsource.com.
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