LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — A Lehigh Acres mother is hesitant to let her children play outside after sewage backed up into neighborhood streets for the third time this year.
Ania Madias was visiting her parent's home on Guava Tree Court when she noticed sewage bubbling up from the ground.
"I came to drop my kids off at my mom's house yesterday, and I noticed that the sewer was just bubbling out into the road. There was a whole puddle in her ditch," Madias said.
Madias says her mother told her this was the third time it's happened this year.
After posting a video of the sewage on social media, crews came out to fix the problem. But neighbors say the crews left behind a disinfectant white powder in one driveway with no warning about whether it was safe.
Click here to see Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Victoria Quevedo speak with Madias about the continuous sewer issues.
"The little kids come home and they're playing in the water... when my mom's husband had got home, he had saw that these two little girls and the neighbors next to where they had put this powder, were playing in it. It's just a white residue they recovered from head to toe in it," Madias said.
In a statement to Fox 4, Florida Governmental Utility Authority said, "The sewer backup occurred on Guava Tree Court and was due to a buildup of grease that likely occurred over time in the sewer main on this street. This is a common occurrence in gravity sewer mains and requires the sewer main to be jetted and cleared of the grease."
The utility says the sewer main is now operating normally.
But residents are still concerned about potential health hazards and whether the cleanup was adequate.
"Why is it happening? Is it going to keep happening?" Madias said.
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