Jacksonville, FL — Action News Jax learned families in South Hampton have been dealing with a nasty smell for weeks.
“It’s pretty gross. It still smells in here, sorry,” local mom Magan Hartley said, not even able to stand in her own bathroom more than a few minutes.
She said this started about a month ago.
“We called JEA,” Hartley said. “We were smelling a really foul sewage gas smell in our master bathroom.”
She wasn’t alone. More than a dozen other South Hampton residents wrote on Facebook that they, too, had a rotten egg-like odor coming from their drains.
“Fast forward to this morning, we woke up to, like, a gurgling sound in our drains, and as fast as I could come to realization that something doesn’t sound right, there was sewage water in every bathroom, standing water,” Hartley said.
Action News Jax reached out to JEA Friday and they said they investigated that odor Hartley mentioned last month and realized they needed to work on the lining of a manhole. They said there was deterioration inside.
JEA said that does two things: improves the manhole’s lifespan and reduces any odors.
But JEA said Friday their contractor working on the manhole had a problem which impacted five homes in South Hampton.
“I ran out and I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but please stop, because it’s flooding my bathrooms!'” Hartley said.
Servpro crews were called and had to gut parts of Hartley’s home.
“You can see that all the molding here has been removed,” Hartley said, showing Action News Jax a hallway outside a bathroom.
Action News Jax asked JEA if people may have been breathing in toxic chemicals, and they called it more of a nuisance than harmful exposure.
But now, families are concerned about what they’ll have to pay out of pocket.
“It’s just stressful for us,” Hartley said. “I just want something fixed.”
The contractor, Spectrashield, has insurance to cover things like this, but Action News Jax will follow up to make sure these families homes are taken care of.
Here are the full responses Action News Jax received Friday from JEA spokesperson, Gina Kyle:
"I’ve been able to confirm that a contractor was on-site doing some manhole 'lining’ work in the area. Unfortunately, they encountered a problem, affecting the customer who called you and several others. It is my understanding that at least two restoration companies have been on-site for several hours now to assist with clean-up for all affected customers. We have also already reached out to the customer via the phone number listed on the account.
We are fortunate that things like this don’t happen very often, but when they do, we appreciate customers notifying JEA right away by calling 904-665-6000.
The work that was being performed today by our contractor, Spectrashield, was requested by JEA due to the findings of the odor complaints from the customers last month. During the odor investigation last month, our team found that the manholes needed to be rehabbed and lined due to deterioration. The process of rehabbing and lining these manholes is to help prevent the odors and increase the life expectancy of the JEA manhole."
