Q.-25. What else can SASS do as a group?
A.-25. You might consider filing a class action lawsuit in which a group of homeowners share the same grievance. Or, lobby for a change in the laws governing disclosure. Circulate petitions and get an issue on the ballot so voters can approve it. You might be surprised how many victims of flooding and other water-related contamination problems would sign it, once the story about the SASS action made the news.
Q.-26. What's the best way to get publicity?
A.-26. In a class action your lawyer must file a lawsuit. If a political matter, you'll have to abide by the law pertaining to getting an issue on the ballot. I have never done it, so you will have to do your own research. Once the filing is done, it becomes a matter of public record and the press can report it as a news story. If not properly filed, you'll have trouble ever getting a line in print about the flooding here in the SASS area, even if the flood is carrying a flotilla of trash cans in its current. I speak from experience, during which only two mentions appeared in the News-Leader. In 2004 Mike O' Brien mentioned my house situation in his column, and Sarah Overstreet did a full column on our neighborhood conditions. Compare the few inches of space SASS has received to the thousands of collective inches Bass Pro has received, and you see what you are up against: money. If you get a spokesperson to lobby for new legislation regarding disclosure, you might get free political publicity. To be sure, buy your own ads.
Q.-27. Do you mean disclosure or non-disclosure?
A.-27 Have a petition signed to get an issue on the ballot that makes Non-Disclosure by realtors and sellers more serious than it is. Make those who are guilty of withholding the truth about the location or condition of a property, if it is subject to the kind of problems we have in SASS, pay stiff fines and even do jail time. Make it a sweeping reform, so the statute covers agencies that advertise Springfield as a great place to live without giving a warning that it is NOT so great for those who discover they've bought flood--or sewage--prone property. You would have to discuss this with a lawyer.
Q.-27a. What would the grounds of the kind of lawsuit be?
A-27a. I cannot give legal advice.
Q.-28. Can you give an example?
A-28. Yes. As I mentioned earlier, Del Campbell's lawsuit, Campbell v. City Utilities, refers to stormwater/sewage inflow dating back to 1980. We had a flood at night in May 2002 that turned the entire South Avenue-Washita block into a shallow sea. Jim Pickett had just moved into the house at 1902 South Avenue, after being part of the class action against Greene County settled by attorney Rick Muenks, legal counsel for Shadowood homeowners. Upon discovering he had moved into another floodprone area, Pickett called someone at the city and a DPW crew was almost immediately dispatched. The crew chief, whose name is on file, told me a CU water hydrant's water valve had been driven through a stormwater drain pipe some years earlier, restricting the flow. In effect, the restriction was like a plug that prevented water from flowing from a bathtub and, therefore, caused it to enter Manhole 13 and contribute to the blackwater flooding that had been going on, unchecked, for almost 25 years!
Q. -29. What did the city do about it?
A- 29. Despite known I/I problems at South Avenue-Washita Street--and mid-1970s replacement of inadequately sized CU water lines in the easement at 201 W. Washita Street while Susie Clingan lived there, DPW replaced the old, damaged 15-inch storm water drain pipe with a new 15-inch pipe; however, a new water box with bigger drain opening was installed. I consulted Ronald Cannata, a New Jersey expert in such matters, who said 15-inch pipe was too small. When the June 30, 2003 flood hit SASS, Cannata proved correct. I took photos of the new storm drain under 12 inches of water.
Q.-30. Wasn't that negligence?
A-30. No comment, but I have excellent photos of the work done by DPW, including the damaged water pipe. The kind of crossover in this case involved DPW doing repair work for CU, but which of the parties is most liable might have to be decided in court: CU for not checking out the reports Del Campbell tried to make to its office, or DWP which checked Manhole 13 but apparently never checked the stormwater sewer just a few yards from it. Do CU and DPW share joint liability? If SASS brings a class action, your attorney will want to address this question.
Q.-31. What are your plans?
A-31. What plans? I am 71. I was 53 when I discovered what I'd gotten into when I came from California to help Mother care for Dad during his final stages of Alzheimer's. I plan to have my attorney, Topper Glass, update my will, at which time I will ask about donating my body to the City of Springfield or to the Greene County Health Department so it can be turned over to the crime lab now in the, talking stages.
Q.-32. What does the crime lab have to do with this issue?
A-32. After an autopsy to determine cause of death, any organs or tissue that can be harvested to help others will be taken. What remains are left can be used in forensic investigations to determine the overall effects of long term exposure to mold and other waterborne contamination on the human body. If a crime has been committed, the truth will come out under the microscope.
Q.-33. What kind of crime are you alluding to?
A-33. Second degree manslaughter by default. It's a term I apply to municipalities that know of dangers to people and allow them to remain unfixed.
Q.- 34. What other plan do you have?
A-34. I might will my head to Bass Pro. As a member of the Trail of Tears Association (TOTA), who has a Chickasaw ancestor and possibly a Cherokee, I am in the process of making application to the National Parks Service to have a Trail of Tears Landmark erected near our SASS properties. Bass Pro, which has both taxidermy facilities and a small Indian Museum at WOW, could mount the trophy above a brass plate that says "The Last Indian on the Trail of Tears."
Q.-35. Are you kidding?
A-35. Wait and find out. Meanwhile, learn from others' mistakes. Delmer and Mary Kay Campbell sued City Utilities instead of City of Springfield, Department of Public Works. This might account in part for the long delays and apparent runarounds they got. SASS members need to know the difference between City Utilities and Department of Public Works.
A. CU provides the water you import--tapwater with which you drink, cook, do laundry, bathe and water your plants. You export the same water down your drains or toilets; it enters sanitary sewers which are maintained by DPW. CU has the water lines, hydrants and stormwater sewer drains.
B. Sanitary sewers, whose large manhole covers are usually in the center of the street, are DPW's. Through cooperative interaction--or crossover--DPW might be observed repairing or installing a CU pipe, drain or water box, but the kind of crossover that's the real challenge involves the city's water, and attempts to cure the kind of crossover that occurs because the system is rife with old, broken, defective pipes from which sewage leaks and gets into the drinking water are the "tracks" I said the city is trying to cover.
C. The magnitude of this crossover problem is my reason for suggesting a moratorium on further growth and expansion--until the City of Springfield finishes the citywide rehabilitation and abatement program it has been conducting since the federal government intervened more than a decade ago, and which rehab has recently been completed in our SASS area.
Q.-36. Please explain what you mean about federal intervention, and how does it affect SASS?
A-36. An overview of legal action involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Missouri Department of Conservation and the City of Springfield is covered in brief in Section IV, CROSS EXAMINATION. How it affects SASS depends on what my successors in SASS decide to do about it. As a start, you might organize a neighborhood field trip that will take less than an hour. See for yourselves the kind of above-ground evidence that is free for the viewing and lets you imagine what the SASS basin near Manhole 13 might have become if the underground system of drainage pipes had not been installed. It is the other side of the Jordan Valley Park development project the public doesn't hear about when the Vision 20/20 plan is discussed, but is a living reflection of what can go wrong when a city gets too big too fast.
Q.-37. What is this place, and where is it?
Q.-37. Follow the tour guide on the next page and make the discovery for yourselves.