Water board urged to act
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Imagine hearing &uot;blub-blub-blub&uot; in your sleep and even having nightmares.
Imagine that the &uot;blub-blub-blub&uot; heralds the backing up of raw sewage into your family’s toilet and bathtub.
Gregory Simpson does not have to imagine these things; he and his family are actually living this nightmare.
Simpson and his wife, Betty, are waiting for a resolution to their long running problems with sewage.
The problem consists of raw sewage filling their home, yard and even the street that they live on.
Since The Times-Journal began detailing their plight a week ago, Simpson said a steady trickle of experts of one type or the other looking into the problem. Officials from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management,
the Dallas County Water, Sewer and Fire Protection Authority, and even a Texas wastewater management company have shown up to their doorstep.
Although all that sounds great – the problem still exists.
An employee with the Dallas County Water Board said the problem is due to a breaker on one of the sewage pumps.
It seems that whenever a storm hits Selma, the breaker blows and unless it’s reset the pump has no power.
When that occurs, the Simpsons find themselves with a yard or home filled with raw human waste.
The current state of affairs is unacceptable. Someone or some organization needs to take the initiative to help these people.
The water board needs to either help this family or help them find a solution so that they do not have to live in the kind of environment in which they currently find themselves.
The Simpsons have been placed in a very untenable situation that has been allowed to go on for far too long.
The water board employee called the Simpsons’ plight &uot;an act of God.&uot;
God performs acts every day.
But sometimes he puts circumstances in people’s hands to find a solution.
This is one of those times.