Every once in a while, we see news reports about people disposing of their own sewage in some rather unsuitable places. This recent story out of a town west of Cleveland serves as a good reminder of how much it would stink if we didn’t have pumpers around.

A landlord in Perkins may find himself in jail after a tenant informed police he was disposing sewage around some trees on the apartment building property.

The tenant, Taylor Dougherty, says the landlord refuses to hire a septic company to take care of the waste and he finally got sick of the smell and health risk.

“Normally, he comes up and just takes the sewage and just dumps it around the trees as fertilizer,” Dougherty told News 5 Cleveland. “Anytime we bring it up to him, he just brings up the fact that farmers do it on their crops, and I tell him all that is controlled by the FDA.”

The apartment, like other properties in the area, is on a septic system. The difference is that those other properties follow the rules and hire pumpers to collect and dispose of their sewage, while Dougherty’s landlord is spreading it in his own yard.

“It smells like straight sewer because of the sewage that runs right down the driveway into the drain, and that's all you smell during the summers,” Dougherty told News 5 Cleveland.

Meanwhile, amid concerns the sewage could contaminate groundwater, the Erie County Health Department got involved and forwarded its reports to the local police.

Source: News 5 Cleveland