PARSIPPANY — In May 2010, owners of a home on Pigeon Hill Road in the Powder Mill section of Parsippany, contacted Town Hall to report that water was flowing onto their property and flooding their backyard. When an employee of the Township’s Engineering Department came to their home to investigate their complaints, he performed a test strip on the water. The homeowner claims the test strip revealed the presence of chlorine.
After conducting the test strip, the Engineering Department ordered the Township’s Water Department to shut off the main water supply to Pigeon Hill Road and nearby Skyview Terrace. However, the Water Department identified no problems or breaks in the water lines and turned the main water line back on.
The following month, with flooding continuing onto their property, the homeowner once again contacted the Engineering Department but was advised that further testing revealed that in actuality, no chlorine was found in the water on the property and the water in the yard was ‘natural spring water’ and that ultimately the water problem was the homeowner’s responsibility.
Almost three years after registering their original concern about the water flooding their property, in March 2013, the homeowner once again returned to the Engineering Department to complain about the incessant flooding of their property that by now had continued for almost three years. That same month, they were told by a Sewer Department employee that the water appeared to be coming from a retaining wall on a neighboring property on Skyview Terrace but the surface water was still attributed to the natural groundwater.
Flooding continued throughout 2013 and into the following year and after one particularly heavy rainfall on April 30, 2014, the homeowner again contacted the township Engineering Department to request that someone come to the property to investigate the cause of flooding.
Two days later, an engineering department employee came to homeowners property and reiterated that the water was natural spring water.
However, on May 9, 2014, nearly four years after the flooding had begun, the water stopped flowing on the property and the flooding problem was completely resolved, as if someone had shut off a water valve.
The next day the homeowner learned that there were two township water main pipes that had been broken and were fixed on May 9, 2014, four years after first learning of the leak.
The homeowner has since filed a lawsuit seeking damages against the Township. Attorney Vijayant Pawar of Morristown is currently representing Parsippany and in court filings, denies the accusations the homeowner claim.
Parsippany Focus asked several members of the Township Council if they were aware of the lawsuit. All admitted they were not aware of nor ever told of the situation.
Mayor James Barberio did not answer a request for comment.
(Article was sourced through court documents filed in Morris County Superior Court)
