MSD-rate hikes but little action from our public utility

I purchased my first Kirkwood home in 1992, off of W. Essex Ave., West of Geyer, and have since purchased another Kirkwood home for my parents. I love Kirkwood and am proud to be a tax paying member of our community. What I am NOT proud of is the flooding on Essex that has steadily become worse each year. There is only one set of intake sewers between Kirkwood High School and Geyer Ave., and the street empties into my yard and, subsequently, my home. Evidently there used to be a drainage area that has since been filled and about 15 houses now sit on that former runoff area. Additionally, the streets that run to the North of Essex do not have sewer intakes at all. The water just rushes between the houses and adds to the massive overflow already rushing down Essex Ave. toward my home. I have written with photos each year to MSD and, in return, received a letter informing me that they are well aware there are issues, but that it will cost in excess of $960,000 to make the improvements needed to alleviate the flooding. I have personally spent over $70,000.00 of my own money attempting to rectify the flooding, but since the issue is a MSD issue, all of my efforts have failed.

In early May of 2007, my property was flooded so badly that it broke through my basement doors and caused so much damage that I had to spend over $10,000.00 just to get the mud & sludge out of my home. The Late Mayor Swoboda was kind enough to come to my home to see the damage and attempted to get MSD to commit to making the necessary repairs to their system. Sadly, as we all know, he is no longer with us to be my ally, and MSD continues to ignore the issue.
Last Memorial Day as my house was once again flooding, I phoned the Fire Dept asking them to use a reverse pump to get the water out of my home. The responding crew could only look at the water gushing into my home and say, “Oh, there is nothing we can do. We don’t have a pump like that to help.” One firefighter sympathetically remarked that he was sorry and he “knew it happened almost every time it rains. The flooding levels have reached so high that the Fire Dept was unable to get their trucks down Essex.”
Were this an isolated incident, I could live with it, but it has happened 7 times in 18 months and on any given day when it rains at all, the water begins to fill the street and within minutes the passing cars are almost submerged. I have thousands of photos of the streets overflowing and bringing up to 4 feet of sewer water bursting through my doors and into my home. The clean up cost is well into the $100,000.00 range, and there is no end in sight.
As I mentioned, I have attempted to use Kirkwood City Offices for assistance, spent 17 years asking MSD to fix their issues, all to no avail. It is for this reason I have been forced to hire a knowledgeable attorney, Michael George, to bring a personal lawsuit against MSD. He has represented others in the area, but MSD’s trick is to keep it in courts and utilize their in- house legal team for as long as they can, knowing full well that all the pre-trial expenses fall onto the homeowner. Believe me, if there was another way to stop the flooding, get MSD to discontinue using my yard and home as a runoff for their antiquated system, I would certainly be open to that option.
In conclusion, all those who have experienced a lack of concern from our public utility, MSD, I am here to tell you that I feel your pain. I know what you are going through and I, too, have been unable to get any resolution from MSD. Want to join my lawsuit and make it a class action suit?

Susan Phillips
Kirkwood