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Because of a septic system problem on Hill Lake, the Kosciusko County Health Department condemned the home at 8727 S. Hill Drive, Claypool, Wednesday.
According to county health department administrator Bob Weaver, previously the septic sewer at the house leaked. The department and the property owner, John Gaerte, decided that because of the small size of the lot, a holding tank with an alarm was the best option, and the homeowner installed it several weeks ago.
The tank holds 1,250 to 1,500 gallons. "I know it's a big one," said Weaver. For some reason, however, Weaver said, the tank filled up faster than it should have, the septic system water surfaced again and found its way to Hill Lake. The tank should not have filled for at least a month, he said.
Wednesday, Neal Brown, environmental scientist with the Health Department, condemned the house. The residents can't live there until a solution to the problem is found.
Brown said according to state law, the occupants have to be given five days to move out of the home. The house will stay condemned until the problem is fixed.
Despite several attempts, property owner Gaerte could not be reached for comment.
As to what is causing the problem, Weaver said, "we don't know," but the homeowners "need to find out." Once they get the problem corrected and the health department verifies that the problem is fixed, Weaver said the health department will release the property.
Brown also said he was uncertain why the septic system is having problems. "I have ideas, but I'm not sure," he said.
As for the sewage running into the lake, Weaver said, there's not a lot they can do about the sewage that has already flowed into the lake at this point. It was his understanding that since the health department was able to stop the problem quickly, not a lot of sewage leaked into the lake. So far, Weaver said, there are no high levels of bacteria in the lake. Brown said the health department will continue to monitor the bacteria levels.
An area resident, Carolina Williams, called the Times-Union about the problem Wednesday morning. At the time she called, she said, "Right now, we have sewage running across the road," she said. It started leaking across the road around 9 a.m., but the residents knew it was full as of Friday because the warning signals on the holding tank went off, she said.
She said sewage has leaked from the property all winter and spring.
"It's time for it to stop," Williams said. "We're not going to tolerate it any longer."
Even after the alarm went off over the weekend, she said, the property owners continued to use the holding tank.
Brown said the health department does not let problems like this happen. He said the problem is not very common and it's "very rare where we have a septic system deadlining to a lake." He said the health department considered this case an "emergency" and jumped on the problem right away.
"The tank was pumped this morning. The problem was fixed," he said Wednesday. However, pumping the tank is a temporary fix and it "only bought some time."
Asked how problems like this could be avoided, Brown said, "We just need people to do what the neighbors did down there and watch things." If they see any similar problems, they should contact the health department.
