Residents at a northeast Miami-Dade apartment building say they have been forced to live in stinky and unsanitary conditions due to a broken septic tank.
The mess has affected people who live on the first floor of a three-story, 18-unit building on Northeast 111th Street and 14th Avenue. Resident Laura Hernandez said she's had to deal with this gross situation for the past three weeks.
"It’s really bad. It’s really bad," she said.
Sludge and murky wastewater have filled up her tub and overflowed into her toilet due to issues with her building’s pipes and septic tank.
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"It’s happened more than five times," Hernandez said. "The situation is that the bathtub is getting full and the toilet and water is coming into the bedrooms."
Leonela Baez, another resident, told NBC6 in Spanish that the smell is unbearable. The wastewater is coming out of the bathroom and seeping into her bedrooms and kitchen.
Residents said the soggy conditions got worse after the flooding from the rain almost two weeks ago.
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Even the community pool flooded and turned dark green and brown. The pool has now been drained but is unusable and in disrepair.
"After the rain, it’s getting worse because now the pool all the structure came out," Hernandez said.
Crews were outside on Monday trying to make repairs and a truck was sucking out the wastewater. A worker told NBC6 off-camera that he was waiting for a part to fix the broken pipe and expected the work to be completed by Monday night.
Code compliance workers were also at the scene. Miami-Dade County’s building division told NBC6 that they were not aware of the issues until we reached out to them this morning as no one had made a complaint with the county to report the issues.
Hernandez said a new building manager took over to fix the plaguing issues — but it’s taken too long.
"They say they’re going to fix it and they’re trying, but the pipe is already damaged," she said. "We can't live in that situation because it’s unsanitary."
NBC6 has reached out to the manager of this specific building, which is run by Top Florida Properties, and has not heard back.
