Intense Sewage Stink, Mold Force Renters Out

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Intense Sewage Stink, Mold Force Renters Out

By Candace Rondeaux

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, June 18, 2007; Page B04

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061700983.html

In the thick heat, the stomach-churning stench neighbors said had

emanated from 1640 New Jersey Ave. NW for months seemed almost

enough to knock a passerby down. But it wasn't until District police

and a fire department hazmat crew descended on the two-family

rowhouse over the weekend that the source of the stink was revealed.

D.C. authorities evacuated at least six people from the white brick

building in the Shaw neighborhood Saturday night after emergency

workers discovered a thick stew of sewage several feet deep welling

up in a basement crawl space. It had caused an explosion of toxic

mold that made the building uninhabitable, according to the

building's owner and other witnesses.

" I've been to some raggedy houses, but that joint there takes the

cake, " said Mack, 28, a Roto-Rooter plumber who was called in

for repairs by the building's owner, M.A. Karim, shortly after it

was evacuated.

A fire spokesman said he had no immediate information on the

incident.

Karim, 51, said yesterday that he had been out of the country for

two months and didn't know that conditions had become so bad at the

residence until he received a call from city authorities Saturday

evening. He said he rarely heard from the family that rented the top

floor of the building in the two years they lived there. Karim said

the tenants, who are Hispanic and spoke little English, never told

him about the problem. They paid $1,000 a month for the three-

bedroom apartment, he said.

" Conditions inside are very good. But the problem was the water got

in there, " Karim said.

The family's name was not immediately available yesterday, and they

could not be reached to comment.

In a first-floor apartment that Karim said he has long planned to

renovate, an overpowering smell of raw waste permeated the air. In

the bathroom, the walls were black with mold, and floorboards torn

up by plumbers after the evacuation were spongy. In the kitchen,

streams of grease and mold clung to the walls like Spanish moss on a

cypress.

Karim said he will probably pay thousands of dollars to have a water

main break on the property fixed and to repair the rest of the

building.

" Whatever the problem, we'll take care of it, " Karim said. " Nobody

will live here until it gets fixed. "