Dead Dog Blamed for Sewage Backup in UtahSun Aug 28, 8:09 PM ET
PROVO, Utah - Paul Dalebout wasn't happy to come across a foot of raw sewage in the basement of his house, but it was a bathroom that left him horrified: "It was just gushing up out of the toilet like a geyser."
Dalebout's houses was among 17 in Provo's Edgemont neighborhood left wallowing in a backup of sewage Friday that gurgled through drains and toilets.
Authorities blamed a dead dog stuffed down a sewer manhole and opened a criminal investigation. They found the dog's owner from an identifying chip implanted in it. The owner said the dog had been missing.
Provo offered to reimburse homeowners for the cost of hiring professional crews to clean up their houses — for a second time since asphalt chunks clogged their sewer line five years ago. Other Provo sewer lines have yielded bowling balls and carpet scraps.
This time crews snaked a high-pressure hose with a spiked end into a manhole to clear the sewer main, dislodging the corpse of the large dog.
"I can't take this anymore. We're going to have to move," said Dalebout's wife, Donna. "It's all the neighbors' sewage coming up here in our basement, just like it did five years ago. I can't take it again. I'm too old for this."
Paul Dalebout said, "We're like the hurricane victims."
Provo Public Works Director Merill Bingham said someone had to lift a manhole cover to drop the dog into the sewer line. He said sewer backups weren't uncommon — the city deals with about five incidents a year — but that it was "extremely unusual" to strike the same houses twice in five years.
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