Marietta man wants city to pay for sewage overflow - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

A Cobb County man wants the city of Marietta to clean up a mess left behind by a sewage back-up into his home.

Mike Nelson has rented out his home on North Fairground Street for six years. The house flooded with raw sewage back in April.

His first reaction was to call his plumber.

"He said when toilets overflow, you'll have a small area. It doesn't shoot it. He goes, 'that's why, literally, I call it a tsunami.' He said, 'You had a sewer tsunami just fill your home,'" said Nelson.

The veteran Cobb County firefighter says he's smelled some foul things over the years, but nothing like the overflow.

"When you walked in you almost threw up. You had to put a respirator on," said Nelson

Mike did his best to clean up the mess, but blames the city for it. Marietta Power and Water paid a contractor $4,400 to clean up the property.

"Why did we do it? We're not really admitting that it's our fault. We just think it's a good thing to do for our rate payers. It's good will," said Bob Snelson of Marietta Power & Water.

Snelson says his crews came out to clean a sewage line eight months earlier, but says they weren't working on the block at the time of the incident.

"No we have not found anything that we did to create this situation," said Snelson.

Contractors tell Nelson it will cost about $15,000 to do a deep cleaning of the house.

"I can't rent it. I can't take a chance on somebody getting sick from this," said Nelson.
    
Nelson has filed a claim with Marietta, but last week the city council voted unanimously to deny it. Nelson says he'll now take the city to court.