Leri Harper at her home on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Leri Harper at her home on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Everett woman paid sewer bill for 23 years, unaware she had septic tank

Records showed the city signed off on a sewer connection in 1973. This year, Leri Harper had to spend $20,000 to fix it.

EVERETT — After a record cold snap in January, Leri Harper checked her basement in southeast Everett.

“It was just starting to warm up and pipes were starting to leak,” said Harper, 69. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t have any broken pipes.”

All five rooms in her basement were flooded.

When the plumber she hired, Bruce Melton, came to inspect the damage, he called the sewer connection “weird.” It was above ground, transitioned from a normal cast iron pipe to a concrete pipe then to a 6-by-4-inch PVC fitting. All unusual.

Two months later, Harper literally has a journal filled with notes titled: “Sewer/Septic Saga.”

She now believes her cobbled-together plumbing — with a septic tank that then connected to the city sewer — was the result of “negligence and dishonesty” by a city employee 50 years ago.

Harper wonders if there could be others.

To fix the damage and reconnect her house to the sewer, it cost Harper $20,534 from her emergency fund. She plans to file a claim with the city to be reimbursed for sewer payments, as well as the cost to restore and hook up.

City spokesperson Simone Tarver said via email that Public Works had helped with Harper’s expenses by waiving the utility permit fees, as well as the cost of a camera to identify the location of the connection point.

“A City inspection does not mean the City guarantees inspected work,” she wrote. “That work is always the sole responsibility of the contractor and the property owner.”

Tarver said the homeowner or the contractor probably did the least expensive and invasive process at the time and believed it would work.

“In fact, it did ‘work’ for approximately 50 years. The property’s sewer WAS connected to the sewer main. It went through the septic tank first, but ultimately it did connect to the sewer,” Tarver wrote. “This is not up to current codes, however, in this case it functioned for 50 years.”

‘We would have been very scared’

In 2001, Harper bought her house on Yew Street with her late husband, Nicholas. The couple moved from Olympia for work.

“It was the worst house in the neighborhood,” she said. “My husband put in 22 gallons of paint. We tore up all the old flooring and carpeting.”

Still, the view of the Snohomish River valley made it worth it. But knowing the house was connected to a septic tank would have changed their mind.

Leri Harper points out the large area of her sloped backyard that had to be dug up to access the septic tank on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Leri Harper points out the large area of her sloped backyard that had to be dug up to access the septic tank on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

“Hillsides tend to be unstable,” Harper said. “We would have been very scared of that.”

After a month of renovations, the couple settled down.

For years, they paid their sewer bill, currently $83 a month. Harper’s husband died in 2011 at the age of 64, leaving her alone in the house.

Harper had been thinking about her future. The house is too big for her and Kona, her 9-year-old Yorkshire terrier. Rather than moving, she was thinking of converting her basement into an apartment and renting it out. Last year, she retired from her job at the Social Security office in Seattle, but had some money for the conversion.

Then, the flooding happened.

Harper first called Everett Public Works. After a city inspector, Brad Olhava, looked at the main, he said there was no backup at their end. Harper called Melton, who asked the city to lend him a special camera to inspect the inside of the sewer lines. Melton said this kind of camera can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“There was a lot of convincing that I had to do,” the plumber said.

The city agreed to loan the camera.

A few days after Melton inspected her house, Evergreen Sanitation pumped the septic tank for five or six hours. According to inspection records, 40 inches of scum and 18 inches of sludge had accumulated.

The state Department of Health recommends pumping a tank when it accumulates more than 6 inches of scum or 12 inches of sludge.

The camera from the city proved Melton correct. The water was flowing out of the house and into the septic tank before feeding into the city sewer. Only liquid waste left the tank. Solids got trapped.

Melton installed a new pipe, bedded it with gravel, backfilled the trench with soil and filled the septic tank with 900 gallons of gravel — a method to safely abandon a septic tank.

‘Just have to roll with it’

In Pam Hurst’s 18-year career as a local real estate agent, she has only encountered one similar case.

A couple years ago, a friend’s septic system “blew up all over their front yard,” Hurst said. That’s when Hurst’s friend realized she was connected to a septic tank, despite what the previous owner had told her. It had been six years since her friend had bought the house and she was not billed for sewer services.

Hurst recommends homebuyers check the sale disclosures given by the seller and the property descriptions on county website. Sometimes, she said, county documents say it’s “unknown” whether there is a septic or sewer connection.

If so, it’s important to tell the house inspector. If the inspector can’t figure it out, homebuyers should get a sewer scope.

The Snohomish County Health Department maintains a database of as-built septic system records.

The records can be accessed at snohd.org/159/As-Built-Records

The database doesn’t mention Harper’s septic tank.

Melton got the original sewer permit for Harper’s house, dating from 1973.

Harper’s sewer application and permit from 1973 on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Harper’s sewer application and permit from 1973 on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

“There’s two points you have to verify as an inspector. One, is that it is connected to the building, and two, is that it is connected to the city sewer,” he said. “There really should be no way of getting around that.”

Tarver said she didn’t know what the inspection process was like in 1973. Currently, the city inspects the entire line “from the exterior of the house to the connection to the sewer system,” she said in an email. “The primary focus is the connection point where the private line connects to the City system.”

As expenses mounted, Harper reached out again to Public Works.

According to Harper, the department told her they had “no liability” for the city employee’s work.

The city, she added, told her she “had better get busy hooking up to city sewer right now.”

Jennifer Gregerson, the city’s director of governmental affairs, wrote in an email that, when the sewer is outside of the public roadway, homeowners are responsible for maintenance, as per city code.

Harper has asked neighbors about their sewer systems. They said they hadn’t had any problems.

“I have to look at it as ‘things happen.’ The older I get, I just have to roll with it,” she said. “I just hope it doesn’t happen very often.”

Aina de Lapparent Alvarez: 425-339-3449; aina.alvarez@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @Ainadla.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Customers enter and exit the Costco on Dec. 2, 2022, in Lake Stevens. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Costco stores could be impacted by looming truck driver strike threat

Truck drivers who deliver groceries and produce to Costco warehouses… Continue reading

Two Washington State ferries pass along the route between Mukilteo and Clinton as scuba divers swim near the shore Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ferry system increases ridership by a half million in 2024

Edmonds-Kingston route remains second-busiest route in the system.

Pharmacist Nisha Mathew prepares a Pfizer COVID booster shot for a patient at Bartell Drugs on Broadway on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett lawmakers back universal health care bill, introduced in Olympia

Proponents say providing health care for all is a “fundamental human right.” Opponents worry about the cost of implementing it.

x
Edmonds police shooting investigation includes possibility of gang violence

The 18-year-old victim remains in critical condition as of Friday morning.

Outside of the updated section of Lake Stevens High School on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 in Lake Stevens, Wa. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lake Stevens, Arlington school measures on Feb. 11 ballot

A bond in Lake Stevens and a levy in Arlington would be used to build new schools.

Robin Cain with 50 of her marathon medals hanging on a display board she made with her father on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Running a marathon is hard. She ran one in every state.

Robin Cain, of Lake Stevens, is one of only a few thousand people to ever achieve the feat.

People line up to grab food at the Everett Recovery Cafe on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Coffee, meals and compassion are free at the Everett Recovery Cafe

The free, membership-based day center offers free coffee and meals and more importantly, camaraderie and recovery support.

Devani Padron, left, Daisy Ramos perform during dance class at Mari's Place Monday afternoon in Everett on July 13, 2016. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Mari’s Place helps children build confidence and design a better future

The Everett-based nonprofit offers free and low-cost classes in art, music, theater and dance for children ages 5 to 14.

The Everett Wastewater Treatment Plant along the Snohomish River on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett water, sewer rates could jump 43% by 2028

The rate hikes would pay for improvements to the city’s sewer infrastructure.

The bond funded new track and field at Northshore Middle School on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Bothell, Washington. (Courtesy of Northshore School District)
Northshore School District bond improvements underway

The $425 million bond is funding new track and field complexes, playgrounds and phase one of two school replacements.

Lake Stevens Sewer District wastewater treatment plant. (Lake Stevens Sewer District)
Lake Stevens sewer district trial delayed until April

The dispute began in 2021 and centers around when the city can take over the district.

A salmon carcass lays across willow branches in Edgecomb Creek on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 in Arlington, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Tribes: State fish passage projects knock down barriers for local efforts

Court-ordered projects have sparked collaboration for salmon habitat restoration

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.