Sewage issue leaves NW Houston apartment residents with stinky problem

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A sewage drainage problem at a northwest Houston apartment complex has a number of residents filing complaints with the City of Houston.

The apartment complex is located in the 8600 block of Pitner Road.

"It smells like drainage, sewage, human waste. It smells horrible," said Raghu apartments resident Diane Rice.

On Tuesday, you could not miss the smell from the standing raw sewage outside of Rice apartment.

"It's an ongoing situation," said Rice. "I'm more worried about the kids because they have to play out here."

Rice said the sewage has been collecting for days. She showed Eyewitness News photos of previous times when the sewage caused a stink. On Tuesday, we saw many children in the area, some of them walking with no shoes on.

"The biggest thing has been trying to maneuver from human poop," said April Barnes who lives across the way from Rice.

Barns said she has to hop and tip-toe around the sewage water. But she said she can't escape the smell.

"I use candles all day. All day every day in my house and you still just smell the smell as soon as you walk in," said Barnes.

Barns also showed Eyewitness News photos she said she took last August. The photos showed the same area outside of Barnes apartment flooded with what appeared to be sewage water.

Eyewitness News tried to reach out to the apartment manager onsite, but workers inside the office locked the office doors and would not open up.

Plumbers were called on on Monday to fix the sewage draining problem. And from the looks of it, they did. But Barnes and Rice said that's happened before and the problem keeps coming back. On Wednesday, workers were seen at the apartment complex spreading fresh dirt over the contaminated areas.

Barnes and Rice said they have filed complaints with the City of Houston. According to the public works department, the apartment complex has been given two citations for the sewage problem and three violations by the city's health department.

Repeated phone calls and emails to the owners have not been returned.