Illinois woman uncovers massive black mold problem

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Townhouse mold investigation

Illinois woman uncovers massive black mold problem

Sep 28, 2005, 05:30 PM EDT

http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=3912093 & nav=1sW7

By Barbara Dawson

CARBON CLIFF, Illinois -- " They drilled holes to relieve the water

pressure, " says Sherese Ross.

Sharese has rented her townhouse for three years. But for the past

year, the place she's called home was slowly rotting away.

Sherese says, " Water was leaking through the drywall into my garage.

The drywall was bowing and they came in and stuck a screwdriver in

the ceiling to relieve the pressure. "

A water leak in the bathroom triggered some major problems.

" If you walked into the restroom and got within a foot of the toilet

it would bang against the wall. There's mold growing all over the

place, excessive mold all underneath the first floor, " says Sherese.

Getting down into the crawl space you can see that the black mold

has spread. Sherese says it's caused health problems for her five

children.

Sherese says, " the more they stayed and played downstairs the sicker

they were. "

Why such a mold problem?

Sherese says " whatever drain pipe is suppose to run away from the

house is not, all the water is coming right back to the house.

She made a number of phone calls to the property managers. She even

wrote a letter to congressman Lane to try to get some help.

Then she contacted 8 on your side and we can out to investigate.

The area property manager says Shareses call for help was not left

unheard.

She says " we took the floor out of the bathroom, we put in new wood

under the stool, we sprayed the mold and we put in new sub-pumps. "

She says it'll take 6 months to fix the townhouse. There will be

repairs to the floors and drying out the crawl space.

In the meantime, the Ross family will have to move into a new

townhouse--that's mold-free.

Sharese says she will pack up *only if she's allowed to eventually

move back. Sharese says " you can put me some place temporarily, but

fix the place that my kids know as their home. We want to stay right

here. "

The property manager says " I didn't understand her reasoning, but I

just couldn't see putting those kids back in the same unit, but she

did and that's her home. "