Lakeview Regional Water Reclamation Plant
LAKE DALLAS - It's a smelly mess in Lake Dallas that nobody wants to take responsibility for.
Last month, News 8 told you how owners are upset about the odor coming from the sewage treatment plant next to Lewisville Lake. Now, neighbors say the problem is getting worse, and a long trail of waste has been left on their streets.
It happened Thursday morning on a stretch of road just outside the Upper Trinity Wastewater Treatment Plant. Homeowners were convinced it was raw sewage.
Cody Jackson shot video on his cell phone. It shows a 100-yard trail of muck leading away from the plant.
“We have dealt with that smell for more than 16 years, and it continues to get worse and worse,” Jackson said. “Obviously, with these trucks bringing in more sewage, it’s just adding to the problem.”
Lake Dallas homeowner Gene Tisdale said the odor was even worse than the smell that blows into his neighborhood, near the plant.
"If you can imagine not flush[ing] your potty for six or seven days, and walk[ing] into a closed bathroom, you get a good idea,” Tisdale said.
Upper Trinity officials cleaned up the mess and disinfected it.
“We don’t know how it got here or where it came from,” said Jody Zabolio, a district spokesman.
Tests conducted by the water district showed it was not sewage.
The district said it likely came from construction trucks leaving the plant, or tankers that haul sewage into the plant. One of the contractors, Chaney Environmental of Justin, told News 8.
“If it wasn’t sewage, we don’t know what it was or where it came from," said a spokesperson for Chaney Environmental of Justin, one of the contractors. "We haul wastewater."
Lake Dallas city leaders, concerned about the smell, passed a resolution aimed at Upper Trinity.
“We would just like them to be good neighbors and be respectful of our citizens," said Lake Dallas Mayor Tony Marino. "And I think they can do it.”
More than a day after the spill, no one knows what that sludge was. And no one seems to want to take responsibility for spilling it.
E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com
