HOUSTON – A Harris County grand jury has issued two felony indictments alleging a management company allowed raw sewage to flow from a southwest Houston apartment complex into Buffalo Bayou on two occasions earlier this year.
The indictments allege Bridge Property Management, L.C., based in Utah, knowingly allowed the discharge of raw sewage from the Monte Carlo Apartment complex at 10950 Briar Forest Drive on Jan. 21, 2014 and on April 22 into city storm drains and then into Buffalo Bayou.
Residents in the 600-unit complex told local two news there had been problems earlier this year with sewage and toilet paper covering sidewalks in parts of the complex.
Resident Crystal Poling said on one occasion,"It would come up almost to the door. "
Sarah McLemore has lived at the complex for two years. She said she stopped allowing her three and 4-year-old daughters to walk on the sidewalk outside her apartment.
"We don't let them walk around here even when it's dried up because they don't come to wash pavement off after," McLemore said.
In January investigators measured the pollution in Buffalo Bayou at 1.7 million milligrams of harmful E.coli bacteria per liter of water.
In April, it was worse, and bad enough to cause a kill-off of fish in the bayou; 2.7 million milligrams of E. coli per liter.
According to the Houston Health Department, along the affected section of the bayou near the Briar Forest crossing, E.coli pollution averages between just 100 and 5500 milligrams per liter.
The apartments new manager, Jeri Hampton, said she was aware of an incident last January, before she was hired, that was caused by children removing sewer caps. She says since then, the management company has been diligent in preventing anymore sewage spills.
"We have no ongoing issues," apartment manager Jeri Hampton said. "Nothing has been brought to our attention other than, like I said the periodic, "Oh, hey, kids are over there, and took sewer cap off, and so we'll go over there get the kids and clean it up, and put the sewer cap back on."
Hampton said neither she or company executives were aware the indictments had been issued until she was contacted by Local 2 News. A police source tells Local 2 the investigation is not yet complete.
Attorney Robert E. Bone sent a letter late Tuesday saying that Bridge Property Management, L.C. plans to cooperate with that investigation.