Raw sewage lake finds home in Jackson neighborhood

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - There is a raw sewage lake that runs up and down Chestnut Street in Jackson.

You can see that the most anyone has done to fix the issue is by placing an orange barrel near the lake as a warning to traffic, but for Olla Griffin and other residents, the sewage can no longer be accepted.

“If you call the City of Jackson, they put your name on the list,” she said. “They get your name and number, nothing will be done about it. They say, We’ll get you, but we don’t know when.”

Residents say the environmental hazard and foul stench has been an issue for over a year now. It’s preventing anyone from having the desire to step outside of their homes.

“People like fresh air,” continued Griffin. “People like to go outside and walk and things. You can’t do anything out here; sitting outside smelling raw sewage.”

The thing is, Griffin doesn’t actually live down here where the leak is. She lives up the street, but says the smell and site is so bad that she had to take action.

“That’s why I’ve been calling Channel 3 to get someone to get out here and do an interview to see what was going on and see what we could do about it.”

The house the leak is in front of belongs to Griffin’s friend who was not available for an interview.

Even without her voicing her frustrations, you can see just how much the raw sewage impacts her.

“My friend had to go to the store. The sewage is impacting her driveway and her mailbox,” Griffin said.

In the two weeks that Ted Henifin was in charge of Jackson’s sewage system, he was able to fix seven of the over 200 issues just like this in that timeframe. If he gets put back in that role, Griffin and her neighbors hope they’ll be next up on that list.

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