City, resident in dispute over who is responsible for back-up sewage; sinkholes may be part of the problem

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Sonya Wright is tired of seeing her basement turned into a pool of smelly, debris-filled water.

Since late April, water has backed up in her home three times from heavy storms, damaging furniture, walls, toys and other items.

"It's a big mess," said Wright.

She said sewage backed up into her basement.

But city public works director Mark Brown said he believes it is a stormwater problem that may be linked to a sinkhole and underground cave on Wright's property.

Brown said sinkholes throughout Perryville are part of the city's natural drainage system.

"Our sinkholes are portals in the cave system below us," Brown said.

Stormwater drains into sinkholes that carry runoff into underground caves.

"Like any storm drain system, it only takes so much water," Brown said.

He said the public-works department plans to check a sinkhole on her property later this summer to see whether the natural drainage to the cave is blocked. Metal bars block entrance to the sinkhole in Wright's backyard as well as to the small cave entrance near her home.

Brown said there could be a crack in the cave, which could be causing part of the problem.

Unlike some sinkholes elsewhere in the United States, the Perryville sinkholes are connected to the tapestry of underground caves throughout the city.

"The city maintains about 400 sinkholes," Brown said.

"We use them and maintain them so they don't get huge," he added.

The city has installed pipes in some of the sinkholes to help facilitate storm drainage.

Perry County has about 10,000 sinkholes, he said.

Brown said the city does not pipe sewage into the sinkholes. The city has a separate, piped sewer system.

Mayor Ken Baer said sinkholes and caves are "almost our entire drainage system. I call it a divine design stormwater system."

Baer added, "Our sinkholes are like culverts."

The mayor said Wright's home is situated in a natural basin of sinkholes that likely will always flood during heavy rains.

Baer said the underground, limestone caverns that comprise part of the city's drainage system constantly change. Cavern roofs can cave in, he said.

None of that is reassuring to Wright.

Wright lives in the house on Grand Street with her husband, three children under 5 years of age, three dogs and a cat.

Wright said their basement was flooded with sewage to a height of 30 inches April 28.

"If our son had not woke us up at 5 a.m., our dogs would have been dead," she said.

The three dogs stay in kennels in the basement at night, Wright said.

The water receded, but on April 29, the backup problem resurfaced.

"We ended up with another 12 inches in the basement," she recalled.

On June 23, a storm led to another backup, flooding the basement to a height of 26 inches, Wright said.

Wright said sewage backed up into her home through four floor drains just as it happened in April.

Wright said they did not call a plumber to check to see whether the sewer line that connects the house to the city's sewer main was blocked. She said the city "smoked" sewer lines in her neighborhood several years ago and detected no cracks in her line.

Wright said the backups have caused about $100,000 in damages to their house.

She and her family would like to move out, but Wright said they can't afford to do so. The basement is in shambles.

"We have cracks all over the house," she said.

"We used everything we had in savings," Wright said, adding they had to replace their water heater twice since April.

"We are living paycheck to paycheck because no one is helping us," she added.

Wright said neither their insurance company nor the city's insurance company will pay for any of the damage.

Wright said the city's insurance representative told her there is no proof the city is at fault.

"My insurance company won't touch it because they say it is the city's fault," Wright said.

Baer, the Perryville mayor, said the city has liability insurance that would pay for damages if it were the city's responsibility. The dispute is "between the two insurance companies," he said.

Wright said she believes city officials have "no clue" why their basement repeatedly has flooded this year. Wright said she and her family experienced no flooding the previous five years they lived in the house.

"We have no answers, and now we have all this damage," she said. "It doesn't make sense."

But Brown, the public works director, said the drainage system can be taxed by heavy rains.

Brown said the April storms dumped 17 inches of rain on the area over four days. The June 23 storm dumped 4.5 inches of rain on the city within 45 minutes, he said.

Without such heavy downpours, the basement flooding "would not have happened," Brown said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641