Sewer backup shows problem in disconnected pipe

By kathy baratta
Staff Writer

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Cones designate a construction area off Seton Hall Drive, Howell, where a disconnected sewage pipe created a sinkhole. The house in the background, 4 Syracuse Drive, in Country Meadows Estates was directly affected by the disconnection.

HOWELL — The drains were always slow, according to Richard Rivera, a homeowner in the Country Meadows Estates housing development off Vander-veer Road; however, when raw sewage starting backing up into the bathtub and sinks and overflowing onto the floors of their Syracuse Drive home, Rivera and his wife, Dana, knew they had a serious problem.

The overflow filled the lower level of the home with 2 to 3 inches of water, shorting out the family’s large-screen TV.

After professionals had come to fix the problem on Feb. 19, the Riveras would find that things were worse than they had first imagined; such as the fact that there was an as-yet-undiscovered sinkhole developing on the side of their house where their drain cap sits.

First, the plumber they called to solve the overflow problem told them there was a "stoppage" from the main water pipe running from their house to the sewer line in the street.

A photo taken by Richard Rivera (above) of Howell shows a sinkhole that developed around a drain cap that was supposed to carry waste from his home to the main sewer line in the street.

Rivera said the toilets overflowed in the house for the first time on Feb. 10 when the washing machine was running. After calling a plumber who thought he had cleared the lines, the Riveras went away on vacation.

A week later when they returned and were again in the middle of doing a load of laundry, raw sewage came backing up from every drain in the house. Rivera said the plumber told him it was the discharge of the high volume of water from the washing machine that caused the sewage to back up into the house.

On his second visit to the house, an underground video inspection performed by the plumber determined there were at least two areas of standing water under the Riveras’ lawn between the side of their house and the main pipe in the street.

The plumber’s inspection also revealed the problem to be 2 feet beyond the curb line and the Riveras say they were told they would have to contact their sewer utility to perform the work needed to correct the problem.

This photo shows the distance between two disconnected pipes that allowed sewage to seep into the ground outside the home at 4 Syracuse Drive, Howell.

Rivera said the plumber estimated the cost of clearing the obstruction at $5,000 to $10,000.

He said when he contacted the New Jersey-American Water Co. (NJAWC), he was initially told the problem was his to rectify, not the utility company’s. However, Rivera said that after NJAWC representatives talked with the plumber, they agreed to perform the work.

Rivera was standing by when the water company’s work crew went to unearth the drain cap outside his home.

"Suddenly the ground collapsed," he said.

Rivera said when the excavation of the area was completed, a sinkhole in the making was found at the area of the dislocated pipes. He said that just below the surface of the drain pipe was a fetid mixture of "wastewater and sand. The ground was like quicksand."

Rivera estimated the diameter of the sink hole to be 8 to 10 feet. He said the pit descended to a depth of 10 feet before solid ground was reached.

The area in which the sink hole was developing is a few feet away from a school bus stop.

Rivera said he was told by the workers that the sinkhole was developing at this time because of the high saturation of the soil due to the almost 2 feet of snow sitting atop the lawn over the disconnected pipes.

Rivera, who was there to photograph-ically chronicle the work as it progressed, said the pictures speak for themselves. Clearly depicted in one photograph is the open pit area around the unearthed drain cap. Also visible is the clear distance between the two underground pipes that had apparently never been connected.

Rivera said when the drain cap was removed for vacuuming, sand kept coming out instead of water.

Shawn Kanniard, the supervisor of the NJAWC crew that performed the work at the Rivera home, told the Tri-Town News the machined end of the pipe leading out of the Riveras’ home was found lying "at least a foot away" from the street pipe it was supposed to have been connected to and "created the sinkhole under the sidewalk."

"The pipe was never hooked up, so we hooked it up," Kanniard said.

Asked why the company was fixing the problem at no cost to the Riveras, Lendell Jones, NJAWC director of government affairs, said, "There was a problem the builder left, and we fixed it."

As to how it could be that the primary pipe running from the Riveras’ house to the street main had never been connected is something that is being looked into by several entities, including the State Commission of Investigation (SCI).

SCI special agent Peter Glassman was at the Rivera home on Feb. 20 to interview the Riveras regarding the matter. A call to Glassman by a Tri-Town News reporter was not returned.

The Riveras are among a group of several Country Meadows Estates homeowners who have entered into litigation against K. Hovnanian, the builder of the development. The Riveras said they, like many of their neighbors, initiated their lawsuit due to structural defects discovered in their home.

The completed construction of the Country Meadows Estates development some eight years ago has been followed by ongoing litigation and state investigations that resulted in job terminations and license revocations of several Howell construction and plumbing officials.

K. Hovnanian was contacted by the Tri-Town News for an explanation of how the connection of the two pipes at the Rivera home could have been overlooked. Company spokesman Doug Fenichel would only say that until the Riveras’ problem came to light this month, "We have never had a sewer problem in this area."

As to the pipes not being connected, Fenichel would only say, "It was a bonded job inspected and approved by the township."

Fenichel also said the two pipes could have been disconnected by a piece of heavy equipment when the Riveras’ swimming pool was installed.

Tracey Kelly is a Country Meadows Estates homeowner also involved in litigation with K. Hovnanian. She has been at the forefront of the homeowners’ ongoing battles with the builder.

Her relentless investigation into the structural deficiencies found in the homes in her development and others statewide over the course of the last eight years eventually resulted in her being named president of the New Jersey chapter of the national group Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (HADD).

Kelly, who was contacted by the Riveras because of the pipe and sinkhole problem, said, "The call from this neighbor was not a surprise as I had already been in contact with the township due to the fact that several streets in County Meadows are cracking, showing signs of an underground problem."

Kelly said she has asked the township to investigate the cracking streets.

The street directly in front of the Riveras’ Syracuse Drive home has a crack running from one side of the street to the other.

Ed Mack, who took over the position of construction official for Howell when former construction official William Klumb left after the state investigation, said there are a number of scenarios that could account for the disconnected drain pipe, including Fenichel’s explanation regarding the pool installation.

Mack said he pulled the site plan for the Riveras’ swimming pool and found, according to the diagram, that the heavy equipment was mistakenly directed over the area of the drain pipe.

He said the drain cap that juts a few inches out of the ground could have been run over by heavy equipment from the pool installers or even by a lawn mower. He said the jarring could then have popped one pipe from the other as the disconnected end was a glue fitting and not a compression fitting.

However, Mack said he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the connection had never been made, even though the construction file for the Rivera home shows former plumbing inspector David Golom signed off on the inspection in February 1994.

Deputy Mayor Peter Tobasco, who has resided in his Pointe O’Woods townhouse for 15 years, told the Tri-Town News he had had an experience similar to the Riveras.

Tobasco, who does not have a swimming pool, said that after a year in his house he started having slow drain problems and overflows.

Tobasco said a plumber came and snaked the line and he thought the problem was solved. However, he said, five years later during an extremely rainy November, toilets starting backing up into the house again.

Tobasco said it was then, at a personal expense of about $3,000, that he had the line dug up and discovered the main pipe leading from his house to the street had never been connected.

"Basically, what we had all those years was a leach pool under the ground instead of a sewer main hookup," Tobasco said.

Regarding the cracking streets in Country Meadows Estates, Mack also said he didn’t think the disconnected pipe was symptomatic of that problem.

Kelly brought the matter to the attention of the Township Council at their meeting on Monday night.

Township Engineer William Nunziato Jr. said the municipality will be conducting underground video inspections in Country Meadows Estates to determine why some streets are cracking.