'Extremely frustrating': Woodland Heights man says city continues to ignore raw-sewage issues

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A man in Woodland Heights says the City of Houston has been ignoring his complaints about leaking sewage along his street for more than three decades.

Rob Kelley lives on Wrightwood Street and tells ABC13 an abandoned sewage lift station about a block from his home has been causing problems since he moved there in 1993.

"It's a really sickening smell," Kelley said. "It gets inside of your house."

Kelley told ABC13 it's also common to have raw sewage flowing down his street when a hard rain hits the area.

"The raw sewage gets into the street and stays there," he explained.

He said he's unsuccessfully tried to get the city to fix the issues for as long as he's lived in the home.

"I've probably called (311) hundreds of times," Kelley said. "It's extremely frustrating."

He thought a change might come a few years ago when the City of Houston was sued by the EPA in 2018 for repeated instances of raw sewage escaping into public waterways from wastewater treatment plants across the city.

A resolution was reached in 2021 with the city promising to spend nearly $10 billion on related projects over a 15-year period.

ABC13 asked the City of Houston and the EPA whether this particular lift station is among the projects slated for repair under that agreement.

Both entities have responded to the initial inquiries and told ABC13 they're looking into the matter.