MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas — Residents in the Vander Ranch neighborhood are smelling sewage that has been leaking from a pipe and running out into the grounds of the surrounding area.
"We've been smelling a lot of sewage at night, and strong in the morning, and nothing's been done about it," said Shannon Baucom, a resident in the neighborhood. "So were hoping something can get done at some point, but nobody wants to live somewhere where it smells bad."
Now the Midland County Environmental Enforcement department is investigating criminal charges, saying the following in part:
"There's an active investigation open at this time and were working with TCEQ to have it rectified."
People living in the neighborhood said they have reached out to the company in charge of the sewage.
"Neighbors have called, a lot of people have gotten involved, tried to make phone calls, so I'm hoping something will get done," said Baucom.
The Park Water Company sent the following statement to NewsWest 9:
"The Park Water Company operates a small wastewater treatment plant in Greenwood, Texas. The plant is experiencing issues and is operating at a reduced capacity, resulting in a sanitary wastewater spill. The spill has been disinfected and reported to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality while the teams work diligently to return the facility to normal operations."
Residents said this and other issues in the neighborhood have hurt their property value.
"I think it needs to be a livable condition, and I mean it's livable, but I mean it's not livable for what we paid for our homes, we bought a home," said Baucom. "It's a large investment for most people, and most people are hardworking oil field families or in the medical industry, and now they've got a home and the value is going to decrease."
In the end, residents just want it fixed.
"We'd like to see something done, not open sewers, because that's definitely an open sewer," said Baucom.