KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One homeowner calls it the most disgusting job of his life; he’s digging out from a stinking mess.
Wayne Bagley, 52, says his basement has been flooded with raw sewage, and public officials aren’t willing to help clean it up.
Bagley and his wife moved into their KCK home off 43rd Street late last year. It was last Thursday, when a strong stench in the air prompted Bagley to look into his basement. That’s when he discovered the lower level of his home was flooded with raw sewage.
Bagley shared photos showing the basement with ankle-deep sewer water.
He says it took a crew of six people to clean it out. Everything that used to be stored underneath the house is now in his backyard.
“It took everything within me to hold myself together,” Bagley said.
Bagley says he watched as sewer water poured from a Unified Government Board of Public Utilities dig site last Thursday, which flowed down Haskell Avenue, and into his walkout basement.
On Saturday, he called city workers from the Unified Government. That agency sent a worker to check it out.
“(The worker) saw all those contents, and immediately, he said, ‘it’s not our fault,’” Bagley recalled. “I said, ‘what do you mean,’ and he said, ‘it couldn’t have been our fault.’”
Bagley says he called a plumber to investigate his sewer lines, which were found to be in good working order. Mike Tobin from the Unified Government’s Public Works Department told FOX 4 News his crews discovered city lines to be in good repair as well, and his division isn’t to blame.
“Do I think they’re sorry that happened to me? No,” Bagley said.
Bagley says the sewage spill also brought rodents and potential airborne illnesses into his home. He says, as a result of this mess, he’s not sure when his family’s home will be back to normal.
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