City law department recommends $204,400 settlement for repeated sewer backups at single home; DPW describes longer-term fixes under consent decree

The Board approved a settlement agreement and release resolving claims related to repeated sewer backups at 1543 Northgate Road. Deputy Law Department attorney Stephen Salsbury told the Board the case involved seven plaintiffs — the property owner, the primary tenant and five children — and arose from at least six separate sewer backups between March 2022 and June 2023. The Law Department recommended settlement of $204,400 to resolve all claims.

Salsbury said DPW crews made multiple responses, conducting camera inspections and removing debris, but later identified structural defects in the private lateral that required construction repairs that took many months to schedule and complete. “While they had gone out repeatedly to clear out the sewer line, the lateral line... they were not really fully resolving the issue,” Salsbury said, adding that the repeated events inflicted “horrible experiences” on residents.

City Solicitor Ebony Thompson and Comptroller Bill Henry both voiced frustration about recurring backups in historically disinvested neighborhoods and urged more proactive infrastructure planning and mapping to anticipate problem areas. Thompson underscored that a wastewater utility fund pays claims like this and recommended data mapping to prioritize capital repairs.

DPW officials described system-level actions underway. Interim Deputy Director Matt Korbark and interim bureau head Steve Sharkey said the department is expanding cleaning and preventive maintenance, adding camera operators, and targeting mains that require upsizing or replacement. Korbark explained there are two categories of backups: wet-weather capacity issues and dry-weather blockages caused by fats, oils, grease, rags and other obstructions. Sharkey said cross-divisional meetings and a customer escalation unit are in place to improve responsiveness.

Mayor Brandon Scott told the Board the administration has been negotiating provisions tied to sanitary sewer overflow reductions under consent-decree work and cited multi-year investments: a reported 48% decrease in SSOs since 2018 and an 84% decrease in overflow volume. He said the city has spent roughly $1.6 billion between the consent decree and a modified consent decree and continues maintenance and capital upgrades.

Why it matters: repeated sanitary sewer backups pose health and housing harms to residents and can be costly to litigate and settle. City officials said more preventive maintenance, mapping and targeted capital work are necessary to reduce recurring homeowner claims.

The Board approved the settlement motion on the record.