Raw Sewage - need information on how to get a problem resolved

sunshinereggae

Hello,

21/09/2015
Raw Sewage overflowed from manhole on my property. I confirmed it was a main sewer issue and had backed up on to my property from main sewer system. This happened once before and it was caused by the sewage pumping station where I live tripping out (I'm the lowest property on the line). Rang council who transferred me to Irish water who are now responsible for it. Raised a call and was told as it was raw sewage it would be raised as a high priority and call would be passed on to Council.

22/09/2015
No contact from anyone either Council or Irish Water.

23/09/2015
Rang Irish Water was told there was no update. Asked to speak to a supervisor and was told they were all busy, pushed the issue and asked could they call me back and then got to speak to a supervisor who said he was raising the level of priority on the call to a higher level.

24/09/2015
Rang Irish Water again no update only telling me call was passed on to council. Requested to speak to a Supervisor and I'm told none available today. Requested a call back from Supervisor.

I have two questions
1: Can I have the contact details of who can help me? Irish Water faults line just sing the same mantra - its with the council but no one in Irish water seems able to pick up a phone and ring the council to find out when they intend looking at it.
2: Do Irish Water have a formal complaints procedure and how do I access it?


I have the ref id number for the call that was raised.

Regards

Irish Water: Niall

Hi sunshinereggae,

Thank you for your query and apologies for any inconvenience caused.

We will be happy to help your here. Would you mind providing the following details via PM and we can investigate this matter further:

- Name;
- Address; and
- Contact Number.

In relation to our complaints procedure, please click here for more information.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Niall

sunshinereggae

Irish Water: Niall wrote: »

Hi sunshinereggae,

Thank you for your query and apologies for any inconvenience caused.

We will be happy to help your here. Would you mind providing the following details via PM and we can investigate this matter further:

- Name;
- Address; and
- Contact Number.

In relation to our complaints procedure, please click here for more information.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Niall

Hi Niall

PM sent

Regards

Irish Water: Niall

Hi sunshinereggae

sunshinereggae wrote: »

Hi Niall

PM sent

Regards

A member of our team has responded to your query via PM.

Kind regards,
Niall

sunshinereggae

25/09/2015 No contact from Council and no update following on from your request to Council for update yesterday.

Irish Water: Mairead

Hi sunshinereggae,

A member of our team has responded to your query by PM.

Kind regards,
Mairead

looksee

I can understand the OP's personal details being given as a PM, but the rest of the information should be out in the open. The OP put the question in the public domain, it might be helpful to the rest of us to know how to follow through on this kind of situation.

Irish Water: Mairead

Hi looksee,

Thank you for your query.

looksee wrote: »

I can understand the OP's personal details being given as a PM, but the rest of the information should be out in the open. The OP put the question in the public domain, it might be helpful to the rest of us to know how to follow through on this kind of situation.

I understand your concern, however we update our customer's privately as these details pertain to a customer's specific data. We do this to comply with data protection acts and to ensure that our customer's information is kept private.

Kind regards,
Mairead

Buona Fortuna

Irish Water: Mairead wrote: »

Hi looksee,

Thank you for your query.

looksee wrote: »

I can understand the OP's personal details being given as a PM, but the rest of the information should be out in the open. The OP put the question in the public domain, it might be helpful to the rest of us to know how to follow through on this kind of situation.

I understand your concern, however we update our customer's privately as these details pertain to a customer's specific data. We do this to comply with data protection acts and to ensure that our customer's information is kept private.

Kind regards,
Mairead

Mairead

That's totally fair enough.

Have you solved his problem?

I think the rest of us are concerned with what happens when we get raw sewage pumping up over the geraniums.  Is it just something that gets batted backwards and forwards between IW and the council?

Meanwhile the OP is looking for waders and decontamination suits for the kids.

Irish Water: Mairead

Hi Buona Fortuna,

Thanks for your query.

Buona Fortuna wrote: »

Mairead

That's totally fair enough.

Have you solved his problem?

I think the rest of us are concerned with what happens when we get raw sewage pumping up over the geraniums. Is it just something that gets batted backwards and forwards between IW and the council?

Meanwhile the OP is looking for waders and decontamination suits for the kids.

Due to data protection reasons, we are unable to discuss the details of a case on a public forum or release any details pertaining to the updates received.

Kind regards,
Mairead

Steve

Hi Mairead, I don't think anyone here is asking IW to comment on any particular case or breach DPA, just some guidelines on who best to contact / how to best resolve the matter in the event we wake up one morning to a garden full of poo. 
Is it best to contact IW? the local council? Who actually comes and fixes it?

I'm only asking because there is a main sewer access cover in my back garden that's higher than the back door step (sloped garden) - if it ever overflows I'm in a world of - well - nasty stuff.

StonyIron

The type of poo in the garden is classified under the DPA.

It looks *really* bad to be hiding behind the DPA unnecessarily.

Once you don't post the person's name, address or account details, everything else is pretty much just 'a customer' and 'a problem'.

Irish Water: Allanah

Hi Steve,

Steve wrote: »

Is it best to contact IW? the local council? Who actually comes and fixes it?

If you have any water related concerns, it would be best to contact Irish Water. If it is between the hours of 9am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday, we can send this to the relevant Water Department to have the matter resolved. If it is outside these hours, we would advise that you contact your local Water Department.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Kind regards,
Allanah.

Steve

Irish Water: Allanah wrote: »

Hi Steve,

If you have any water related concerns, it would be best to contact Irish Water. If it is between the hours of 9am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday, we can send this to the relevant Water Department to have the matter resolved. If it is outside these hours, we would advise that you contact your local Water Department.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Kind regards,
Allanah.

Hi Allanah,

Thank you for the reply, I am still a bit concerned about this. Who would I contact out of office hours? Do you have an emergency number for this type of situation? I've looked at the local council website and all they say is to contact IW - (I'm in SDCC area).
Can you point me to some information on what to do if I find raw sewage overflowing into my house at a time that is not convenient to IW - say 5:31 on a Friday.. do I really have to wait 63 hours before I can even report it?

Irish Water: Aaron P

Hi Steve,

I have responded to your query via private message.

Kind regards,
Aaron

sunshinereggae

8/10/2015 Raw sewage again overflowing on my property. This is not remedied. There has been no contact from the Council and no update from yourselves. I raised this issue over two weeks ago, multiple calls are supposed to have been raised but still no action. THERE HAS BEEN NO ACTION ON THIS SINCE IT WAS RAISED OVER TWO WEEKS AGO. ALL THAT TALK BY IRISH WATER THAT THEY WOULD IMPROVE THE WATER SYSTEM? WHEN RAW SEWAGE WHICH IS A HEALTH HAZARD IS JUST IGNORED - I WOULD LIKE A RESPONSE ON THIS AND THE PROBLEM REMEDIED - TELLING ME IT HAS BEEN PASSED ON TO THE RELEVANT COUNCIL AUTHORITY IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE RESPONSE WHEN IN OVER TWO WEEKS THE PROBLEM HAS NOT EVEN BEEN LOOKED AT BY THE COUNCIL. PLEASE RESPOND 

FishOnABike

At this stage I'd have run out of patience, filled a bucket with it, walked into the nearest public office first thing in the morning, put the bucket on the desk and asked who do I get to deal with this problem!

More seriously I'd be looking for any contaminated soil to be removed for disposal. Replaced with fresh topsoil and new lawn to be laid (rolled out, not seed which will be mud for the entire winter.)

sunshinereggae

FishOnABike wrote: »

At this stage I'd have run out of patience, filled a bucket with it, walked into the nearest public office first thing in the morning, put the bucket on the dead and asked who do I get to deal with this problem!

More seriously I'd be looking for any contaminated soil to be remove for disposal. Replaced with fresh topsoil and new lawn to be laid (rolled out, not seed which will be mid for the entire winter.)

Thanks FishOnABike, I'll be honest I have run out of patience, and I will be looking at my options, Irish Water have supposedly raised multiple calls with the Council (Tipperary) I have the call numbers, they contacted me a week ago to tell me the Council had it fixed, the  Council hadn't even spoken to me or been on my property, it wasn't fixed and I told them it hadn't been fixed so someone obviously just closed the call out, they then raised another call for it and told me they would keep me updated - no contact since. This should not be a big problem to fix as it happened a couple of years ago and the guy who came out to fix it told me the pumping station had just tripped out, he reset it and it has worked perfect for the last couple of years. In typical fashion in this country Irish Water say its with the Council and the Council won't talk to me because Irish Water is responsible for it -  one playing off the other and its your average joe who suffers while these people don't do the job they are paid to do.

Irish Water: Niall

Hi sunshinereggae,

sunshinereggae wrote: »

8/10/2015 Raw sewage again overflowing on my property. This is not remedied. There has been no contact from the Council and no update from yourselves. I raised this issue over two weeks ago, multiple calls are supposed to have been raised but still no action. THERE HAS BEEN NO ACTION ON THIS SINCE IT WAS RAISED OVER TWO WEEKS AGO. ALL THAT TALK BY IRISH WATER THAT THEY WOULD IMPROVE THE WATER SYSTEM? WHEN RAW SEWAGE WHICH IS A HEALTH HAZARD IS JUST IGNORED - I WOULD LIKE A RESPONSE ON THIS AND THE PROBLEM REMEDIED - TELLING ME IT HAS BEEN PASSED ON TO THE RELEVANT COUNCIL AUTHORITY IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE RESPONSE WHEN IN OVER TWO WEEKS THE PROBLEM HAS NOT EVEN BEEN LOOKED AT BY THE COUNCIL. PLEASE RESPOND 

A member of our team has responded to your query via PM.

Kind regards,
Niall

jjpep

Irish Water: Aaron wrote: »

Hi Steve,

I have responded to your query via private message.

Kind regards,
Aaron

Could you please put this out of hours contact info on the tread rather than just pm ing it to people, would be useful info potentially for people to have.

sunshinereggae

jjpep wrote: »

Irish Water: Aaron wrote: »

Hi Steve,

I have responded to your query via private message.

Kind regards,
Aaron

Could you please put this out of hours contact info on the tread rather than just pm ing it to people, would be useful info potentially for people to have.

Hi jjpep there was no out of hours contact info in the pm - I've not been able to get any unfortunately

danjo-xx

Un-believeable stuff, you just couldn't make this up :rolleyes:  meanwhile don't forget to Pay Up.

danjo-xx

Un-believeable stuff, you just couldn't make this up :rolleyes:  meanwhile don't forget to Pay Up.

sunshinereggae

danjo-xx wrote:

Un-believeable stuff, you just couldn't make this up meanwhile don't forget to Pay Up.

That's a fact danjo-xx its show me the money but don't expect any service for it, there has been nothing done in over two weeks now only multiple calls raised, it looks like that is the new water service we can all expect from now on- I wouldn't wish this on anyone

overshoot

Perhaps a solicitors letter or a call to the councils environmental health officer. Same as you would be liable to your neighbour if your septic tank, oil tank, bust pipe etc was polluting his land, surely IW should be liable for their effluent overflowing?

As mentioned earlier, having no out of hours contact is a disgrace. It should be a basic for a service of that size.

FishOnABike

It might also be worth looking at a complaint.t to the environmental protection agency for
failing to properly maintain the pumping station (it I'd a repeat incident),
failure to remedy the problem when notified
continuing to discharge untreated effluent

Sometimes the only way to make a body sit up and notice is to hit them where it hurts - in their pockets.
The hassle + cost to them of an EPA enquiry, the possible cost of a fine and the cost of remediating and re-landscaping any contaminated area might put manners on whoever is responsible.

sunshinereggae

9/10/15 Still not fixed, no one has even looked at it yet, please update.

Irish Water: Amy A

Hi sunshinereggae,

A member of our team has sent you a PM.

Kind regards,
Amy.

sunshinereggae

Irish Water: Amy wrote: »

Hi sunshinereggae,

A member of our team has sent you a PM.

Kind regards,
Amy.

Amy, I have received no pm, please can you update.

Steve

sunshinereggae wrote: »

jjpep wrote: »

Irish Water: Aaron wrote: »

Hi Steve,

I have responded to your query via private message.

Kind regards,
Aaron

Could you please put this out of hours contact info on the tread rather than just pm ing it to people, would be useful info potentially for people to have.

Hi jjpep there was no out of hours contact info in the pm - I've not been able to get any unfortunately

I got this on PM which was helpful (to me, unfortunately not for you).

"[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The out of hours number for South Dublin County Council is 01-4574907. You can contact this number to report an incident that occurs outside of office hours.[/font][font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif] "[/font]

sunshinereggae

sunshinereggae wrote: »

FishOnABike wrote: »

At this stage I'd have run out of patience, filled a bucket with it, walked into the nearest public office first thing in the morning, put the bucket on the dead and asked who do I get to deal with this problem!

More seriously I'd be looking for any contaminated soil to be remove for disposal. Replaced with fresh topsoil and new lawn to be laid (rolled out, not seed which will be mid for the entire winter.)

Thanks FishOnABike, I'll be honest I have run out of patience, and I will be looking at my options, Irish Water have supposedly raised multiple calls with the Council (Tipperary) I have the call numbers, they contacted me a week ago to tell me the Council had it fixed, the  Council hadn't even spoken to me or been on my property, it wasn't fixed and I told them it hadn't been fixed so someone obviously just closed the call out, they then raised another call for it and told me they would keep me updated - no contact since. This should not be a big problem to fix as it happened a couple of years ago and the guy who came out to fix it told me the pumping station had just tripped out, he reset it and it has worked perfect for the last couple of years. In typical fashion in this country Irish Water say its with the Council and the Council won't talk to me because Irish Water is responsible for it -  one playing off the other and its your average joe who suffers while these people don't do the job they are paid to do.

You say that the Council haven't been on your property. That might mean that the problem is on your side and not the responsibility of the council? Just a thought. 

overshoot

OP said its the manhole to mains sewer, so it is most certainly an issue for IW. He didnt say if this manhole is also the location of his connection which could allow some culpability on the OP's part. However without inspection there is no way to confirm this. Given there is a history of overflow as the lowest point of the line and a dodgy pumping station an inspection should not have taken this long (is it 3 weeks now?), its negligence and dangerous given whats overflowing.
As I said before, get the EPA, councils EHO and possibly a solicitor involved and watch how fast things get sorted.

sunshinereggae

overshoot wrote: »

OP said its the manhole to mains sewer, so it is most certainly an issue for IW. He didnt say if this manhole is also the location of his connection which could allow some culpability on the OP's part. However without inspection there is no way to confirm this. Given there is a history of overflow as the lowest point of the line and a dodgy pumping station an inspection should not have taken this long (is it 3 weeks now?), its negligence and dangerous given whats overflowing.
As I said before, get the EPA, councils EHO and possibly a solicitor involved and watch how fast things get sorted.

Hi overshoot, you are correct in what you are saying, and to clarify the problem is with the main sewer, I have forwarded photo's to Irish Water of the main sewer which is six feet deep which is full to the top, the problem is that my sewer feeds in to this and I'm the lowest point. The reason that it only comes up to that level and does not affect anyone else (directly) is because the pumping station has an overflow which flows in to an open storm water drain - this was confirmed to me by the Council the last time. There is a very strong smell from this storm water drain now.
Regards

sunshinereggae

!2/10/15 It is now THREE WEEKS and still this problem has not even been looked at. The response by Irish Water has been non existent, you have raised multiple calls and given me multiple call numbers and that is all that has been done - a paper exercise - NO ONE HAS ACTUALLY LOOKED AT THE PROBLEM YET. Do Irish Water not work to any standards? This would be comical only for the fact that we are talking about RAW SEWAGE here but that doesn't seem to matter as in over THREE WEEKS it has not even been looked at. Irish Water raise the call with the Council and the Council just appear to ignore it, Irish Water do nothing then only raise another call for it when I request an update. I ring the Council and they tell me they would like to help me but it is Irish Waters responsibility now and that all calls have to go through them(unbelievable but true). The response to my problem has been very UNPROFESSIONAL and I hope that every one who reads this considers what they are actually paying for with this service - you may all have to deal with them at some stage but I honestly hope you do not.

ONCE MORE..... Irish Water representatives would you please give me an update as to when this will be looked at? When I requested an update on Friday I was told that a pm was sent - I received no pm, unprofessional.

sunshinereggae

Oh the irony, I've just received an updated bill from Irish Water in the post this morning looking for money.

sunshinereggae

13/10/2015  No contact whatsoever from Irish Water again yesterday despite request for update. I requested an update on Friday - received none, I requested an update yesterday(Monday) and received none. I am now requesting an update again today Tuesday, please update. 

Irish Water: Niall

Hi sunshinereggae,

sunshinereggae wrote: »

13/10/2015 No contact whatsoever from Irish Water again yesterday despite request for update. I requested an update on Friday - received none, I requested an update yesterday(Monday) and received none. I am now requesting an update again today Tuesday, please update.

A member of our team has responded to your query via PM.

Kind regards,
Niall

sunshinereggae

Council never arrived yesterday please update??? 

Irish Water: Niall

Hi sunshinereggae,

sunshinereggae wrote: »

Council never arrived yesterday please update???

A member of our team has responded to your query via PM.

Kind regards,
Niall

sunshinereggae

15/10/2015 Council have arrived.

sunshinereggae

Well pump wasn't tripped. Apparently all the  pump control gear was upgraded  just over a month ago and new levels set at the pumping station tank. The plan they tell me is to get the sewer section from the pumping station to the manhole on my property rodded to make sure of no blockage and have the company who installed the new control gear back to check the levels. The rodding was supposed to take place today but did not happen. Don't know when the company is to check the level. If its a blockage the level in the sewer should go down practically straight away, if not then the level is obviously set way too high. It will be interesting to see what happens when its rodded - does it go down or not. What I would say is that you would think when the new level was set that the level in the sewer would have been checked but given that they did not even know the manhole was on my property it definitely wasn't done. Problem still not resolved but Council were on site today.

danjo-xx

Glad its finally being looked at, at long last after 3 weeks, Shame on all of them.

FishOnABike

I wouldn't forget about pushing the council or irish water to remediate any contamination to your property, treatment or removal of any contaminated soil and landscaping / reinstatement to original condition.

Whatever the cause, a blockage or the (coincidental) work on the pumping station shortly before the problem became apparent, dragging their heels for three weeks after the problem was reported is inexcusable.

sunshinereggae

FishOnABike wrote: »

I wouldn't forget about pushing the council or irish water to remediate any contamination to your property, treatment or removal of any contaminated soil and landscaping / reinstatement to original condition.

Whatever the cause, a blockage or the (coincidental) work on the pumping station shortly before the problem became apparent, dragging their heels for three weeks after the problem was reported is inexcusable.

Thanks FishOnABike, spot on, I'm not forgetting anything. The Guy to do the rodding was a no show yesterday  and rang this morning, he's supposed to be on today. I don't think there is a blockage but I understand why they are rodding first to eliminate that, I could be wrong but I think its a bit too much of a coincidence that after the upgrade all this  happened but strange s**t does happen. I think it is highly likely that the level is set too high at the pumping station tank since the upgrade possibly to try and reduce stop start pumping times and not taking in to account any knock on effects. I'll post if the rodding clears it, its approx 100 odd meters from the pumping station to the council manhole on my property, shouldn't be much of a job. Look at the time it has taken just to get it looked at. Given that Irish Water are in the spot light for a lot of other reasons wouldn't you think that they would be more on the ball? With a bit of luck I'll have good news today.

sunshinereggae

Truck arrived for rodding but couldn't do anything as he has to organise help to lift covers at pumping station, is due back Monday afternoon. The saga goes on and on.

Irish Steve

Your best bet is EPA, they will put pressure on IW to resolve the problems. We had a similar issue here in recent weeks, and EPA have been on the case, which has made IW respond a lot more rapidly.

Don't expect any rapid responses from IW, I'm still waiting over 12 MONTHS for an acceptable response to an issue related to (and causing ) flooding due to an IW sewer, which is restricting the flow of a river close to our property.

SuperS54

Unbelievable incompetence from IW and the council, couldn't make it it, the guy arriving to do the rodding but having no one arranged to lift the covers is the icing on the cake. I would have gone ballistic at this stage, I envy your patience. Any chance of a photo to illustrate the literal mess this is?

sunshinereggae

19/10/2015 After all that it was a blockage, they are just after clearing it so finally it has been sorted. The guys who sorted it out only appear to have been told about it late last week and I have to give credit to the them, because after they got involved it was sorted relatively quickly and was obviously not a pleasant job - they are the ones who had to come out and face me whereas whoever is ultimately responsible for the inaction is probably in a nice warm office  somewhere getting paid for their incompetence. It does raise the question of where the  responsibility for the inaction lies, Irish Water or the Council? I honestly don't know and you can make up your own minds, but what I do know is that there needs to be a big improvement in communication between both organisations and us the customers. One passing the buck to the other is not acceptable, one or both are ultimately responsible.

A big thank you to everyone who commented or viewed this post, I wish you all well in your dealings with Irish Water and that you don't have the kind of experience with them that I had. 

FishOnABike

What sort of mess did three weeks of overflowing sewage leave behind and who is taking responsibility for sorting that out and putting everything back to rights?

Johnboy1951

Irish Water: Allanah wrote: »

If you have any water related concerns, it would be best to contact Irish Water. If it is between the hours of 9am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday, we can send this to the relevant Water Department to have the matter resolved. If it is outside these hours, we would advise that you contact your local Water Department.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Kind regards,
Allanah.

I thought this forum was Irish Water?
Are you saying that contacting this forum is not contacting IW?

@Steve or others who received info from an IW rep ..........  is it possible to post (without any personal details) the information provided?