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These people are SOL if they think this was the City's responsibility. The water pipe that leads from the main line (somewhere in the middle of the street presumably) is the responsibility of the owner of the house. Every new home that is built has to have a water line run from the main line to the home, that's why the street openings when a new home is being built. Ditto sewerage. The person having the home built pays for that line and is the owner of that line and responsible for it. Ownership of that line passes from owner to owner. I know it's hard to absorb but that is what it is. I don't know why she had trouble getting a plumber even around Christmas. I've gotten my plumber 9:00 on a Sunday nite when my water heat blew.

Still feel badly for her though, this is the kind of repair no one needs.

Nicolas Fernandes | The Jersey Journal

A broken water pipe and valve outside a Jersey City house leaked for 40 hours in late December, leaving the homeowners practically helpless to stop it from flooding their property.

Sisters Rosanna and Virna Vargas, who own a single family house on Stevens Avenue in Greenville with their mother Zeudi, spent close to $10,000 fixing what was evidently their own problem.

The women recently told The Jersey Journal that when the pipe broke on Dec. 22 and flooded their front lawn and finished basement, a United Water inspector determined the pipe was underneath the sidewalk in front of their house. Therefore, fixing it would be their own responsibility since it was past the curb, the inspector said.

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