Residents of Homehurst Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Overbrook neighborhood have prevailed in a legal battle against the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority over a faulty sewer line along the street.

PWSA on Monday began excavating the line for repairs.

“We’re very happy that this is finally being repaired,” said Natalie Leon, one of the residents. “My thinking is there are other city residents who are facing the same thing we faced. I just hope that they have a group like ours that will stand together and not be afraid to fight city hall.”

PWSA in 2014 repaired a rupture in the line that spewed raw sewage into the street, but the authority declared the line private and said residents would be responsible for future maintenance.

Residents objected and launched a legal battle that twisted through two hearings before the Allegheny County Health Department, a complaint filed with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and finally ended up early this year in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Robert J. Colville determined the line is public and should be repaired by PWSA.

“We decided not to appeal [Colville’s ruling],” said PWSA spokesman Will Pickering. “We felt that between the various legal discussions that we would accept the latest ruling and move on. Our priority is to remedy any public health issue that’s out there.”

Pickering could not immediately provide a cost estimate.

Leon and four other residents — Jaime Wagner, Louise Sell, Christopher Cratsley and James Rauber — took on PWSA without benefit of legal counsel. They argued that Pittsburgh had maintained the line for more than 80 years, since it annexed a portion of Baldwin Township that included their street.

PWSA contended that the line was private because it didn’t appear on any public record and that the 6-inch line buried less than 3 feet underground was not typical of publicly constructed sewers, which are larger and buried much deeper.

Residents produced public documents supplied by former Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak’s office indicating that Baldwin constructed the line and Pittsburgh annexed the neighborhood in 1930. PWSA assumed maintenance of all city sewers in 1984.

The health department sided with the residents on two occasions, ruling that PWSA failed to provide evidence that the line was privately installed and that “government entities, not individual homeowners” were responsible for the cost of repairs and maintenance.

Colville upheld the health department’s decision.

“It is a relief,” Leon said. “Except for paper, ink and postage, we had no large out-of-pocket expenses, but we’ve also had to live with this calamity for five and a half years.”

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