Genoa Township family's septic woes began with new bike trail. Now they wash dishes outside

Mike and Amanda Anderson live in a nice home along a busy street, just north of Westerville. Their family of five can walk a short path from their backyard to Hoover Reservoir, one of Columbus' main sources of drinking water and a recreational haven, including a 5-year-old bike path.

The Andersons claim that Westerville hit one of the arms of their septic tank when it installed the bike path.

Their Genoa Township home is supplied with water from Del-Co Water Co., which serves Delaware County and parts of four surrounding counties.

Amid this abundance of water is a dry irony: Even though their spigots produce ample pressure and volume, the Andersons are unable to use much of it without a foul, burbling stream of waste pushing from their septic tank cover, spilling into the yard.

"Logistically, it's been a nightmare, but our system worked fine before they made the (bike) path," Mike Anderson said. "We didn't cause it."

Their problems began, they say, about seven years ago when the city of Westerville installed a multiuse path on Columbus property around the reservoir. In doing so, discharge pipes from the Andersons' home that would have extended under the now-paved Big Walnut Trail broke.

When a passing bicyclist complained about the nuisance and smell, a sanitary engineer with the Delaware General Health District investigated and told Anderson to seal off the broken outlet pipes. He did so, he said, capping the ends with concrete.

But shortly after, the foul-smelling discharge began to surface.

"Our system has nowhere to discharge. We're plugged up. It comes right out of the tank," Anderson said. "If you take more than a two-minute shower, this is what happens. This floods, and it stinks, and you can't stand outside."

A spokesman for the health district justified the decision to prevent septic discharge.

"Shortening the end of the line to eliminate the surfacing of sewage would eliminate the indirect connection to the reservoir allowing the homeowner to have more time to work on a permanent solution," according to a health department statement to The Dispatch.

The smell is embarrassing when the Andersons have guests. And year-round it requires them to live like pioneers, or at least to forgo household conveniences.

They hand-wash dishes outdoors when the weather's warm. In the cold, they use paper plates and plastic cutlery.

They take minute-long showers. Any more than that tops out of their septic tank. And unleashes the smell.

"It's like a farm," says Amanda Anderson, politely. But on this hot summer day, it's overpowering.

The family has been trained to flush only occasionally, and then with bricks and other objects in the toilet's reservoir tank to displace the water flow.

Washing clothes requires running a hose from the washing machine outlet into the backyard. Or bringing dirty clothes to their relatives for washing.

Tangled jurisdictions

The home at 7111 Sunbury Road is in Genoa Township in Delaware County. Neither the county engineer nor Westerville city engineer's offices have been helpful, Anderson said. He would like to tap into the sewer lines of either, but getting permission has been a struggle — and the cost to do so prohibitive.

To use its sewer lines, Westerville would require the Andersons to annex their property into the city from Genoa Township. But it is not contiguous to city property, a requirement for annexation, City Engineer Nathan Lang said.

"Even if it could be annexed, which is not possible, (Westerville) sanitary sewer is not contiguous to the property nor in practical proximity," Lang said.

The Delaware County Regional Sewer District told the Andersons that tapping into its system would be unrealistic because: "The nearest public sewer is over 1,000 feet away and would involve at least two road crossings and atleast four property crossings," according to an engineering assessment.

The city of Columbus, which owns the reservoir and has concerns about what ends up in it, has no easy solutions either. Allowing the septic pipes to re-release closer to the reservoir would not be permitted.

A proposal to build a raised-earth mound system to release the wastewater nearer the family home is an option, but one that Columbus won't approve without detailed plans. The city also hasn't told the Andersons what it will cost to lease the Columbus property to operate the system.

"They won't even give us a ballpark price," Mike Anderson said.

"All on-lot (septic) systems eventually fail and require a lot of maintenance," said Lorraine Krzyzewski, watershed manager for Columbus. The city "doesn't have any record that the (home's) system was ever approved to be installed on city property."

Krzyzewski said the city empathizes with the Andersons' plight and has shown restraint.

"We've given the homeowners many years to come up with a solution. Given the limited options, the city did show some grace by allowing the new system to be located on our property, she said.

Ultimately, the Andersons want someone to claim responsibility for the initial septic line break and to offer help.

"There has been no evidence that shows that the path installation damaged the resident's system either directly or indirectly," Lang, Westerville's engineer, told The Dispatch.

Yet earlier this year, Genoa Township Trustee Renee Vaughan said Lang told her "that Westerville hit one of the arms of your septic tank when they installed the bike path.

"I'm willing to call him out on this," said Vaughan, insisting that Lang has contradicted himself. "I know that he admitted it to me, and there are a lot of other people who have come to the same conclusion, saying 'Let's be honest. We all know that Westerville hit the lines.'"

Given the collective restrictions and limitations that various jurisdictions have placed on the family, "It's been a government take," Amanda Anderson said. "And really, legally, they are supposed to make up for what they've put on us. And they haven't."

She can't help think that more expensive homes would have more influence in such matters.

"If it were any other house around Hoover, they would probably find a solution," Amanda Anderson said.

Trustee Vaughan, who has no authority to correct the problem, has been working with others to do so.

"Everybody who talks to them says, 'I feel so bad,'" she said. "But they're refusing to do anything for them. Somebody needs to concede and help these people."

dnarciso@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Westerville bike path causes septic woes for Genoa Township family