LOWELL (KFSM) — It smells like raw sewage in one Lowell neighborhood due to old septic tanks failing, and residents there think there should’ve been better planning when the neighborhood was designed decades ago.
Austin Bray lives in the Sabre Heights subdivision in Lowell. Especially after heavy rains raw sewage pools in his backyard and he knows it’s due to his septic tank that has failed. He hopes he and his neighbors can be hooked up to the City of Rogers sewer system.
“For one it would get rid of the smell in the neighborhood, but I’ve been doing some research on what sewage can do and there are things like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and diseases possibly like hepatitis that can be in sewage,” he said.
Lowell Mayor Chris Moore said they are working with the Benton County Health Department, Rogers Water Utilities and state officials to figure out what the problem is and how to fix it. The mayor said there are 85 homes in the subdivision and 12 of those homes septic tanks are at a potential for failure.
“We had a study done back in I believe 2006 to identify this and try to find any kind of solution. They weren’t able to find one. The problem just quietly went away and we are in the process of trying to readdress this issue,” Moore said.
Bray said it has gotten to the point his children can’t even play outside anymore.
“We’ve got a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old and they come out here and play and my dog comes out here and plays and he’ll come back into the house and start tracking sewage back into the house and you can smell it. It can’t be good for anybody. Basically, we just want to live in an environment that is healthy,” he said.