Some Longwood residents say they’re having more problems with water from a nearby wastewater treatment plant, water they say forced sewage onto their properties before. 

Residents who live along Azalea Drive in Longwood say their lawns became soggy once again in early September.

John Faiello says standing water in his backyard is causing his deck to rot prematurely.

“This is just not supposed to happen after five years,” said Faiello. “It’s completely rotten – the whole thing.  No one thought this was going to happen again, and here we go again.”

We were at another home along Azalea Drive back in late 2014 when residents say they could see what appeared to be human feces in their yards. 

At that time the Florida Department of Environmental Protection discovered the wastewater treatment plant behind the residents’ homes had dumped more than a million gallons of untreated wastewater into a nearby creek.

DEP closed that case after they said the plant’s operator completed corrective action.

A spokesperson for Utilities Incorporated, which operates the plant, says the plant is under significant maintenance and during heavy rainfall recently they had to divert water into a holding tank. But that spokesperson says there is no longer any filtering of water that would still be impacting residents.

Homeowners say when the groundwater rises, it causes their septic tanks to overflow.

“You can see where the pumps pump it, there’s a hole in our yard where it’s trying to get up but it’s saturated, so it comes up on the sidewalk,” said Faiello.

And even though things are drying back up, residents say they’re now left with repair bills from broken septic tanks, messy front yards and concerns about when the water will rise again.

“We’re living in it, you don’t have to live in it like we do,” said Faiello. “We are very frustrated, very frustrated.”

Even though several residents say they have property damage, Utilities Incorporated says it has only received a damage complaint from one homeowner. 

One homeowner said an insurance inspector came out to her house, and she’s now waiting to see what type of assistance she will get.