Fecal fight brewing in League City as county goes after septic tank owner

LEAGUE CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- A League City property owner has a smelly fight on his hands.

After buying a vacant one-acre plot on Mary Lane near FM 517 last May, Braden Halterman said he discovered a patch of wet, smelly soil.

"I don't even like to come over here when it's warmer because the mosquitos are just all over," Halterman said.

A lab test he paid for and shared with Eyewitness News confirmed the presence of fecal matter.

"It's a danger to the community," Halterman said.

"It became very apparent there was a major leak. Something was leaking," Halterman's landscaper, Julius Christopher, said.

Because the sewage patch is located along the fence line Halterman shares with Marcus Bishop, Halterman suspects Bishop's septic tank is to blame.

In October, Galveston County fined Bishop $283 for an "on-site sewage facility violation."

Bishop told Eyewitness News that his septic tank isn't leaking any sewage.

"Let's just find a solution to it, an amicable solution," Halterman said.

But Bishop said any solution won't involve him since he maintains it's not his sewage.

After he pleaded not guilty to the sewage violation charge in December, there's been little movement in the county's case against him.

A hearing has been scheduled for April as the case heads to trial.

Meanwhile, the sewage continues to bubble up.

"This is League City, Texas, not a third world country. We shouldn't have open sewage just sitting and sitting and sitting," Halterman said.

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