Palmyra, Pa- On Wednesday, February 24th a community member in the Palmyra Borough submitted a post on Facebook about how her house was deeply affected by an alleged recent routine flush of the sewer lines of her neighborhood. Missy Patrick said on a Facebook post “The notice advised to close lids and place towel on top of toilets. Which is understandable and I expected that a little water, but nothing the towel wouldn’t soak up.What I got was a GEYSER of water coming out of EVERY TOILET, SINK and BATHTUB of my house. Subsequently, flooding my basement (to which we JUST had Finished last Friday) We could NOT stop the water until we ran outside to ask them to STOP!”.
Mrs. Patrick said that she doubled checked the quarterly newsletter (from the Borough) and no notice was provided there. Mrs. Patrick alleged that it was not until yesterday that ” Our fist and ONLY notice we received was door tag that was PLACED yesterday (2/22/22) between 3-6pm.” she said in a statement. Originally she wanted the lines to be flushed and for the past 6 years she has been wanting the Borough to flush the sewer lines but according to her testimonial the borough said it was not needed at the time, and just recently they decided it was time to flush the lines. When Mrs. Patrick saw that the Borough’s workers were coming to her house, she said she did not imagine what would happen next. “I was NOT expecting GALLONS of water to shoot out of every toilet, sink and bathtub in my house!” said Mrs. Patrick.
In the notice the Borough dismissed their responsibility of any damages due to the sewer lines being flushed. According to Mrs. Patrick the Borough is using the pretext that there is a Federal law that absolves them from any liability.
We reached out to the Borough via email for comment but have not received a response as to what law protects them from liability.
Mrs. Patrick alleged that the Borough used to carry insurance but that they dropped it. Mrs. Patrick is now looking to find out what is the law that allegedly protects the Borough from liability, she is also trying to find out how long ago the Borough stopped from carrying insurance. Mrs. Patrick said that her family is planning to pursue legal action and said “We never had actual proof that it was the boro until today.”
Has this ever happened to you? Please send us an email with your story [email protected]
Author: Amaury Abreu
