Foul-Smelling Water Leak Frustrates Hartford Neighbors

A horrible stench in one Hartford neighborhood has neighbors fed up.

Neighbors say foul smelling water is leaking out from a home on Brookfield Street. It’s near their backyards and they want it stopped.

On Sunday, a crew from NBC Connecticut witnessed what neighbors say is part of the problem: water spurting out of a hose which snakes out of a basement window in a townhome on Brookfield Street.

The water smells and neighbors say it’s been a constant problem for the past couple months.

“I was really smelling it and it was like bad.” Says Scott Hart of Hartford.

The foul smelling water is collecting outside one home and further down the group of townhomes. Neighbors are concerned sewage might be in the water and its effect on their health and quality of life.

“You can’t open up your windows or, and when you’re walking in and out of your home you smell it,” says one neighbor who did not want her name used.

Neighbors say no one lives in the townhome with the hose right now.

They say they’ve contacted the City of Hartford and MDC to look into what might be the source of the problem. But so far they haven’t had any luck stopping the water from pumping out.

“There is an issue somewhere and we just want to know where the issue is and how to fix it,” says Hart.

NBC Connecticut spoke briefly to Michelle Simon who is listed in city records as the owner of the unit where the water originates.

Simon blames the problem on a sewer line issue that the City of Hartford and MDC need to address.

However MDC spokeswoman Kerry Martin confirms a crew was there on Wednesday for reports of a possible sewage issue, and found no problem with the main sewer line.

Martin says it may be an issue with the lateral line, which attaches individual systems to the main line. Any problems with lateral lines is the responsibility of the property’s owner or owners. Martin says MDC crews did leave paperwork for the property’s owner, as is standard procedure.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the City of Hartford but the city has yet to comment.

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