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Chesapeake woman wants her backyard back

Posted at 6:48 PM, Apr 19, 2013
and last updated 2013-04-21 09:33:26-04

Chesapeake, Va. -Imagine your backyard smelling like a toilet. Well, for Deborah Bradshaw, she doesn`t have to.

"It does definitely smell like a bathroom back in my backyard. It smells awful. I mean, it smells like hahaha sewage. And you know, that`s exactly what it is," said Bradshaw.

She first noticed the smell about a month ago, and called the City of Chesapeake this week, when the stench became unbearable.

City workers didn't do official testing, but based on observations, they told Newschannel 3 and Bradshaw that the water flowing behind her home is in fact, sewage.

"This water drains into the wetland, and children play in this water. They`re fishing, and they`re running around barefoot, and catching turtles... And they play in this nasty sewage water," she added.

Bradshaw told NewsChannel 3 the water normally starts trickling out around 8 in the morning. Then throughout the day, it will start gushing.

But the city says it`s not their responsibility, and told Bradshaw that it`s coming from Butts Road Primary School behind her home.

That`s when Bradshaw called on NewsChannel 3 to take action, and find her answers on what exactly is happening in her backyard.

The city told us there`s nothing they can do. So, we tried contacting the school several times the past two days, and when someone finally got back to us, they told us a sewage pipe in the lifting station was reported broken yesterday. They said they fixed it before the end of the day.

Then, adding to confusion, they said no sewage escaped from the pipe, and they don`t know if it`s connected to the mess that`s been going on for the last month.

As for Bradshaw, all she wants is her backyard back.

"I can`t come out here during the day. I`ve tried to come out and work in my yard, and it smells so foul that I had to go back in. You can`t sit out here and read in the evenings because of the smell," she said.

And by the smell of things, she won`t be doing that anytime soon.