MART, Texas — Dorian Clawson said he's owned the building at 121 N. Pearl in Mart for years and is trying to turn the complex into a nice apartment space.
Over the last few months, Clawson said he had cut off the water, re-lined the pipe in the building and had yet to install all the toilets. So when Clawson entered the building on May 27 to find multiple rooms covered in sewer waste, he said there was only one explanation. The sewage came from city lines.
"They had back-washed or pumped or flushed or 'whatevered' the sewer main and it pushed all that crud into my building," Clawson said.
To be sure, Clawson called plumber Curtis Harris from Smelscer Plumbing Inc. to check the building out. 6 News spoke to Harris about his findings Wednesday.
"Sewage came out into the bottom level," Harris said. "Got there, looked at that, popped the city cleanout and saw that it was holding water there, which tells me that is a city line issue."
Harris also confirmed there were no functioning bathroom facilities in the building. Which makes it impossible for the building to have generated the sewage that later backed out.
Clawson personally showed the damage to the Mart city manager and public works director. They instructed him to call the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool, which would manage his claim.
On April 6, TML sent Clawson a letter that stated that the claim had been denied in full.
The letter said, "Based on the facts in our investigation, we have concluded that the damages you are alleging were not caused by any wrongful act, omission, or negligence on the part of the City of Mart or any of its employees."
Clawson said he didn't understand what the TML investigation entailed, as no person from the agency ever came out to look at the building or requested to see pictures of the damages from him.
"The only people who saw the mess were myself, the city manager and the guy from public works," Clawson said
6 News reached out to TML with multiple emails and phone calls Wednesday to find out if the claims department was aware of the extent of the damage and the lack of facilities to cause a backup in Clawson's building. The claims department eventually said they did not talk to the media and hung up the phone. Staff at the main number, however, promised to have a media representative call back at some point.
Mart City Manager Kevin Schaffer said over the phone that he did not believe the sewer work being done around the same time could have caused the issue, but said he was not completely sure of what the timeline of work was either.
Shaffer said the city public works director would be available to speak to 6 News Thursday morning.
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