LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Makenzy Buckner purchased her first home about five years ago.
“It didn’t feel real until the first night I stayed here and then of course it definitely felt real when I made the first payment on the house,” Buckner said.
But home sweet home hasn’t smelled so sweet lately.
“I was met with this ungodly odor. It just smelled like an outhouse,” Buckner said.
Buckner said she called a licensed plumber who told her the issue was in the alley, a public right-of-way, which meant the city’s pipeline maintenance crews would handle the repairs.
“It started a weeklong ordeal trying to get a response from the city. By this point, I have other people’s sewage in my backyard. That is a health hazard to me, my dogs,” Buckner said.
Lubbock homeowner Jennni Boller also had a sewer line issue in her alley, and says it took crews weeks to respond.
“I contacted them every couple of weeks just to check on it. In the meantime, the overflow is spilling out into the backyard,” Boller said.
Lubbock City Manager Jarret Atkinson said the process was inefficient.
“It did generate a lot of complaints,” Atkinson said.
This is one of the reasons why the Public Works Department recommended an amendment to the ordinance.
The amendment would require property owners to hire a city-approved contractor to complete work to their private sewer lateral line in a public right-of-way.
Council voted in favor of the amendment in October 2023 and it went into effect in early January 2023.
The licensed plumbers we spoke with, like Will Aruasa, the owner of Flatland Plumbing, said they were just as surprised as homeowners to learn of the change.
“I found out about the ordinance on Jan. 9. I called in for a lateral repair and the lady at the office said they no longer do it, it is now the customer’s responsibility,” Aruasa said.
“When you heard, that what was your immediate thought?” we asked.
“It’s going to be expensive,” Aruasa said.
We asked Atkinson if the city notified licensed plumbers about the change.
“The public works crew, which is who put the change in the ordinance together and presented it, they did reach out to plumbers. Did they meet with all of them? I don’t know, probably not,” Atkinson said.
When city staff presented the amendment to the council, staff estimated it would reduce city operational and capital improvement costs by an estimated $800,000 annually.
While the city is now saving money, property owners said they are getting hit with big bills.
“I was shocked. I got the estimate in and that is $6,500 dollars,” Buckner said. “Nobody has that money. I don’t know how they are expecting homeowners to pay for something that is on the city property.”
Homeowner Zeke Patton said he paid a plumber to replace the line in his backyard only to learn there were more issues with the line in the public right-of-way.
“We ended up contacting the city and they told us that basically, they aren’t responsible for it anymore, and there’s a list of plumbers to call,” Patton said.
Patton said his plumber, also surprised by the news, hadn’t applied to be on the city’s list, so he had to hire another company to finish the work.
“They came out and told me it was going to be $3,500. We are in such a rush because we haven’t had a sewer line in two and a half weeks that drains. We don’t have time to shop around and see who else is going to do it. I called about three or four other plumbers, just trying to get a ballpark estimate and no one will tell me without coming out to look and they are all backed up and can’t come out anytime soon,” Patton said.
We took property owners’ concerns to Lubbock City Councilman District 3 and mayoral candidate Mark McBrayer.
We asked McBrayer if council members had any idea how much repairs would cost property owners.
“No, I didn’t,” McBrayer said. “When it came to us, it seemed like a good decision based on the information we had. I had no idea how much that might cost.”
Lubbock City Councilman District 4 and mayoral candidate Steve Massengale said he stands by the council’s decision.
“The cost of that last piece of the line, that small piece of the line, should your neighbor pay for that or should you pay for that? At the end of the day, it’s the property owner’s line and I think that’s why I can justify supporting that policy,” Massengale said.
Still, Patton said the estimate on that portion of the line is high.
“The 8-foot of alley work is more expensive than the whole inside line,” Patton said.
Property owners have theories regarding what caused the damage to their lines.
“The cause is not actually the sewer tap itself, but the lateral line that is connected to the sewer line where the dump truck drives over it. Settlement over the years has caused it to where it is no longer a downgrade on it and it has a portion which flows uphill which is preventing the sewer line from completing draining,” Patton said.
“I am not driving down my alley to crush these sewer taps. I feel like it’s utility trucks that are doing it and garbage trucks. I don’t think that it’s fair to not maintain what infrastructure is here in the alley and then push it off to the homeowners,” Boller said.
We asked Atkinson about the allegations that city vehicles are damaging private sewer lateral lines.
“They are welcome to get with us and we will look into that. Remember, the most common cause of failure is the age of the line. The second is going to be trees and roots that have gotten into it. Once the line leaves your property line, your fence, then it generally starts to dive down pretty quickly and get pretty deep. I wouldn’t say that’s not possible, I would say it’s not likely,” Atkinson said.
“We see it all the time where the trash trucks were running. It’s just dirt, it washes out. With the weight of the trucks, it’s going to crush it, it’s going to push down on the pipes,” Arausa said.
We asked McBrayer if he will bring these complaints to council.
“Yeah, I’ll ask us to revisit it,” McBrayer said. “We need to be responsible with how we address that issue and not unnecessarily push problems off on the homeowners if there is a better way to do that. I am certainly happy to, I will ask council to revisit it.”
Click here to see the list of city-approved contractors.
If you think a city vehicle has damaged your property, click here to file a claim against the city.
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