ANDOVER
Family still suffers from sewer leak                   5/8/00
By Ethan Forman
Eagle-Tribune Writer

ANDOVER — North Main Street residents complain the town has yet to clean up from last month's sewage spill near their homes along the Shawsheen River.
   Health officials say they didn't know a problem still existed and will clean the area.
   During heavy rains April 22, sewage with tampon pads, condoms and toilet paper burst out of two manhole covers behind Duwayne S. Erickson's home at 226 N. Main St.
   The 38-year-old truck driver put the manhole covers back, and placed sandbags on top of them. He blocked the area with a sawhorse, and even dug a small trench to direct the sewage toward the river. One of the manhole covers sits 20 feet from his back door, just two feet from the river.
   Today, the Ericksons say they can still smell the sewage, and won't let their two daughters, ages 10 and 12, play in their back yard. One can see toilet paper on the ground where sewage flowed into the river. Tampon pads are scattered about. "Who... wants kids playing with these things?" Mr. Erickson asked aloud while kicking a tampon pad in the dirt. There are eight or nine children who live in the area, he added.
   "We shouldn't have to live with this problem," said wife Paula A. Erickson, 35.
This is the third year in a row the sewers have popped off in heavy rains. Three years ago, Mr. Erickson spent more than $100 for bleach to clean the area, which also borders the site of the Powder Mill Square project.
   The planned medical office complex and apartment building is expected to include a parking garage designed to flood if the Shawsheen River breaks its banks, in order to keep the water away from nearby homes. Some residents have questioned that plan, given that the river shows signs of sewage contamination.
   "They are so gung-ho about this project... that they have forgotten about us people," Mrs. Erickson said.
   The Ericksons rent a home at the end of three attached row houses, just south of the bridge on Route 28 over the Shawsheen River. He and his neighbors have tried to clean up the area, but the sewage flow has put a damper on that. "They used to be on top of it years before, but lately they have been neglecting it," said Edipo C. Velazquez of 220 N. Main St.