Oregon Court: Sewage spill mess not city’s problem

Sharon Dunn heard a roar, felt her house shake and watched a sludgy goo of brown-gray sewer water ooze out of her toilet and bathroom sink. It kept coming, dripping from her ceiling, forming a mass 3 inches high that reached her hallway and living room. The noise was the Portland suburb of Milwaukie’s high-pressure cleaning of its sewer system. Dunn says the city let its waste seep onto her property, and the sludge destroyed everything it touched. She also argues that by allowing it to happen, the city effectively claimed her property — and she was owed compensation. On Thursday, the Oregon Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that Dunn’s messy problem was not an ordinary consequence of the sewer cleaning and that the city doesn’t owe Dunn money for the damage.