For all those who may have experienced a sewage backup in the past, you might want to contact the following EPA official who is in Jersey City investigating the situation:

Herman Griffin, Civil Investigator
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Civil Enforcement
Special Litigation & Projects Division
303-462-9463 office (in Denver)
303-462-9075 fax
303-345-5098 cell
griffin.herman@epa.gov

He and his colleague just came to my door trying to track down anyone with a sewage backup in recent years.

The sewer system in Downtown JC is over 100 years old.

A fact sheet from HPNA states:

"Downtown is serviced by a combined Sewer system,
which means that raw sewage and storm
water are combined in the same sewer pipe. When it
rains the collapsed or broken, undersized pipes
backup (surcharge) and a combination of storm
water and sewage floods into your basement."

Here's the link to the fact sheet with more info...
http://www.hamiltonpark.org/PDFS/HPNA ... ooding%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

This happens yearly, cityhall doesn't give a siht to fix the problem (will only do band-aid repairs) and flooding will occur in lots of basements....welcome to JC !

does anyone know why this happens in this area. sorry for my ignorance but i am just wondering aren't sewage pipes separate from drainage pipes. is the smell from an overflow of drainage water or are the sewer pipes leaking? does the smell eventually go away when the water recedes. any info would be appreciated. thanks

I live in the Van vosrt area and can smell the same thing. We actually had sewage come up into the basement of our building during the storm.

I was walking the dog last around Van Vorst and I could smell the sewage backup. I think it has something to do with the fact that we are very close to sea level downtown and with Hanna they were backing up from the canal. It was a very smelly walk.

People be good to your drains - ask yourself can you really flush ________?

Then ask any plumber and they'll tell you, NO WAY!!!

I know it says you can on the box, but they aren't going to pay for the plumber to come out and fix toilet when it backs up.

This happened to our neighbor. Call the city or use the online service request at www.cityofjerseycity.com to request they declog the sewage drain outside your building. That worked for our neighbors. Hope this helps.

We @297 montgomery are experiencing sewage backup on our st level units.

Anyone else having a similar problem in the area?