Raw Sewage Backs Up in Buckhead Neighborhood

ATLANTA - Raw sewage backed up into some Buckhead townhomes leaving residents frustrated and angry Friday. It's not the first time this has happened. Residents in the area said the city's response to the situation was unsatisfactory.

City officials said cooking grease caused the back-up.

"We wake up and all of the feces from these pipes are in our apartments, on the floor, in the bathrooms, on our carpet," said resident Mason Hurst.

Warning signs were posted in the area, alerting residents of the back-up.

"This is the sixth time that this has happened to me," said Hurst.

Before city crews opened drained lines and brought in large vacuum trucks to the complex, Hurst described the conditions at their worst.

"Its bubbling, bubbling, bubbling a lot and we have kids that live here and we walk our dogs back here, we park back here," said Hurst.

Child caregiver Carrie Sanders said she just finished giving a little girl a bath, when the sewage exploded into the bathtub.

"It's just a rubber plug, so if there's any pressure, its just going to pop out. She was actually sitting in the tub and I had gotten her out, but it wasn't less than 10 minutes later that it started flooding. God forbid that I had her in the actual tub when it happened, because I know that she would have been sitting in sewer water," said Sanders.

Atlanta city officials said grease build-up from the densely populated area is to blame.

Workers started the clean up process Friday afternoon. City officials said sewage will most likely back up in the area again.

Janet Ward, a spokesperson for the Atlanta Watershed Department said it is a chronic problem in the area. The city will pay for the repairs at the townhomes that were damaged by the sewage back-up.