A Harrow woman is deeply concerned after she made a disturbing discovery in a ditch in front of her home Wednesday night.
Sabrina Ulch was trimming the trees in front of her home on County Road 11 between Concession Road 3 and Concession Road 4.
"I started smelling something very, very foul, and so I started to see where the smell was coming from," she explained. "We have two water pipes there that are for clean water. Then I noticed that there was raw sewage."
The sewage appeared to be coming from her neighbour's clean water pipe.
It is not confirmed that is the source, but Ulch is certain the contamination is coming from the pipe.
"It is clearly coming out of my neighbour's water drainpipe," she said.
Ulch went next door to tell her neighbour and their daughter told her they had recently paid to have the pipe cleaned out.
Immediately, Ulch called her town councillors. She reached Sherry Bondy who advised her to call the OPP non-emergency number.
Ulch said an officer came by but concluded there was nothing he could do.
On the phone again Thursday morning, she contacted the town's bylaw enforcement office.
The Town of Essex told BlackburnNews.com an inspector would visit the home Thursday afternoon, but by the noon hour, Ulch said the contamination had spread.
"I'm terrified for everybody's health. I'm terrified for the wildlife that lives in that ditch," she said. "It's right in front of all of our properties straight down County Road 11."
Town of Essex spokesman Alex Denonville told Blackburn News in an e-mail Thursday afternoon that bylaw inspectors are still investigating the complaint and that it is an "active file".
