Bronx resident says raw sewage pours outside home since start of pandemic

The family says it sometimes comes out in gushes, pouring down the sidewalk in a smelly river.

News 12 Staff

Aug 10, 2021, 2:35 AM

Updated 1,157 days ago

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If you walk down Burke Avenue near the corner of Barker Avenue, you might wonder, what’s that smell? Well, residents say it’s raw sewage. 
Earline Walker-Brown, 73, says raw sewage has been pouring out through a crack in the sidewalk outside her home. 
Brown and her husband say they have lived at their home for 30 years. They say their daughter, Joy, says the sewage problem started last year near the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. 
The family says it sometimes comes out in gushes, pouring down the sidewalk in a smelly river. 
The Brown’s say the sewage is coming from a house a few doors down that’s owned by Onward Development Properties. 
News 12 tried contacting the company and hasn’t heard back yet. 
The Department of Environmental Protection says it ordered the owner of 660 Burke Ave. to repair the private sewer line after the Brown’s filed a 311 complaint. 
Until that happen, Brown says she feels like a prisoner in her own home.
“I have asthma as well and it just makes me feel sick. I don’t want to go out unless I have to. I don’t go out unless I have to,” said Brown.