TRENTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — Backyards and basements filling with water repeatedly: that’s what some neighbors in Trenton say has been happening to their homes for years. And now, they’re finding a strange substance in the flood waters.
Neighbors say they’ve been smelling diesel, but the county says it’s something else.
“The water in the 5th Street alley should not be coming up out of the storm drains,” Chris Zochowski said as he used video to document flooding on July 2, 2023. He recorded video as bubbling dark water gurgled up into the alley behind his house.
Zochowski is frustrated.
“Neighbors' yards flood every single time — it rained 10 minutes and this is what we got to deal with,” Zochowski narrated on video as he waded through water he believes was 8 inches to 10 inches deep in July.
Zochowski took several videos over the summer. He says ever since he purchased his home on 5th Street in Trenton back in 2020, his garage and backyard have repeatedly filled with water.
Zochowski and his wife Lynn say the frequently plugged drains on the nearby West Road bridge affect the water levels in the alley behind their home. Wayne County owns the bridge and is responsible for the maintenance of the aging span.
Related: 'The bridge is a problem': Crumbling West Road bridge still not fixed
But the often-clogged bridge drains are not the only problem.
“The storm drains in this alley do not work. They have not worked, they’re very slow to operate,” Zochowski told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.
Zochowski says he’s been trying to clear the manhole covers himself for three years. He also says he’s contacted Trenton and Wayne County several times about the flooding.
“Everybody seems to blame everybody else — Wayne County blames Trenton, Trenton blames Wayne County. They say it’s the bridge, they say it’s somebody else’s problem,” Zochowski said.
Related:
- Crumbling West Road bridge causing mounting frustration Downriver: 'I'm scared every time I go over it'
- Crumbling bridge sparks concern in Trenton
Then this summer, Zochowski says a strange oily substance started showing up in the storm drains and on the walls in his basement when it flooded recently as well.
“So there’s a clear smell of either kerosene or diesel,” Zochowski said on a July 26, 2023 video he recorded near a county storm drain with a visible oily residue in the water.
Zochowski documented the oily-looking water staring in June, and then throughout July.
“You can see the black oily substance that’s remained on the ground after the flood,” Zochowski told us as we walked the alley in August.
So we asked the county for answers about all of this.
“In part, it has been fixed,” Wayne County Public Services Deputy Director Scott Cabauatan said.
Cabauatan says one of the county’s main drains in the area was clogged, which contributed to the flooding.
“It's been pumped, it's been cleaned. We found some debris in the line that we really feel was hampering the flow of that system,” Cabauatan said.
Cabauatan says the substance discovered in the water was something called xylene. Cabauatan says it’s likely from paint thinner and it’s not clear how it got there.
“That material was tested. It was not of toxic levels, but we did pump the material out. It was properly treated and disposed of,” Cabauatan said.
After we raised questions about the oily-looking water, Wayne County officials say the health department wrote letters to residents warning them about what was found. In that letter, the county said the xylene was removed from the storm drain back on July 8. And a county spokeswoman told us “the final possible exposure” to the contaminant ended that day as well.
But that doesn’t match the county’s own test results.
Records obtained by the 7 Investigators show samples of “oily water” collected later on July 17 show levels of xylene, ethylbenzene and other chemicals that are used in diesel products.
We asked Sierra Club Toxics specialist Denise Trabbic-Pointer to review Wayne County’s test results.
Trabbic-Pointer is a chemical engineer who worked for decades at a well-known paint manufacturer.
“Do you think this came from paint thinner,” Catallo said.
“I do not,” Trabbic-Pointer said. “My entire 42 years (in the industry) was making paint. And I know what's in paint and I know what’s in diesel. And yeah, there's xylene in paint, but not like these levels.”
“How concerned should the neighbors be,” Catallo saod.
“They should be concerned,” Trabbic-Pointer said. “If they touch it — dermal contact — diesel will go through dermal layer. It's bad for kids. It's bad for pets. It's bad for anybody that would touch it, smell it,” Trabbic-Pointer said.
Zochowski has continued to document what looks like pollutants all summer at other locations near where the county tested, including taking photos in early September after the city of Trenton started digging up the alley behind his house. You can see what appears to be an oily substance in the water and the dirt.
Meanwhile, county officials say they’ve had to wait for permits because of nearby railroads but more cleanup is planned.
“There's some remediation, some cleanup work that we need to do in that area,” Cabauatan said.
As for the flooding that occurs, the city of Trenton did their own construction work in September to disconnect their lines from the county drain that’s been blocked. City officials say they believe that will also alleviate the flooding for the neighbors along 5th Street.
If you have a story for Heather Catallo, please email her at hcatallo@wxyz.com.