Gloria Horning lives on DeVilliers Street and has been tracking the sewage issue for eight years. I had her on “Real News with Rick Outzen” this morning to discuss ECUA’s latest discovery of a leaking sewer line near the intersection of Garden and Spring streets.
She credits Councilwoman Ann Hill for pushing for water testing. “Ann Hill stepped up and started the process of testing and then it went into the larger testing that Barbara Albrecht headed. And we see we have a real health issue here.”
Horning worries about the new construction adding more stress to the antiquated sewer system in downtown Pensacola. “We have infrastructure that’s nearly as old as this city. We need to be proactive and stop this fill-and-build until we get some infrastructure under the ground.”
“As we move forward, Rick, two things,” she shared. “Accountability has to be first and foremost on this. And second, the unbridled building down here that is impacting an infrastructure that can’t handle what it has now.”
Horning continued, “I’ve got 13 homes going up behind me that will all take their sewer down Government Street. Government Street at De Villiers is one of the highest areas of where we have what’s called SSOs, sewer sanitation overflows. It only has to take an inch of rain to make that happen.”
