SULPHUR ­— The city of Sulphur and the state Department of Environmental Quality are investigating an apartment complex for the illegal discharge of raw sewage.

Mayor Chris Duncan said the city was informed by a tenant at Parkway Apartments, 210 N. Beglis Parkway, that raw sewage has been discharged on the property for about five months without apartment supervisors taking any action.

Duncan said the tenant informed him via email that “there is a serious problem here with the sewer; it’s always backing up in and around the apartments and on the grounds of the complex … there is raw human waste on the ground. … Many of the tenants have complained more than a few times. The sewage has gotten so bad that the entire complex is now surrounded by raw sewage.”

Danny Dupre, Sulphur fire chief, said city crews went to the site Monday morning and gave management a 48-hour window to correct the problem, but as of late Thursday afternoon it still existed.

“The mayor and I went out there again after the 48-hour notification and the problem was still there so we made some phone calls Wednesday afternoon for (management) to meet us there Thursday morning to discuss further action,” he said.

Dupre said Thursday the complex was issued a citation that is compoundable daily — every day there is a violation, another citation is issued. Duncan was uncertain Thursday evening how much the citations were for.

“A kid walked up to the mayor and asked what he was doing there and the mayor said ‘we came to make things better for y’all,’” Dupre said. “The little kid said ‘y’all are going to clean it up so we can play again?’ Even these kids know this is a problem.”

Duncan said every time he has visited the property since being notified of the problem children have been playing around the sewage.

“Residents are coming out and telling us horror stories while we are there; this is serious,” he said. “Watching little kids going out there and playing in and around it is heartbreaking. These kids are out there with fish nets trying to catch minnows that are swimming in sewage. No one should have to live in these kinds of conditions.”

Duncan said the same situation occurred at Parkway Apartments in 2010 and the city had to “take aggressive action” then.

“We try to inspect these things as much as we can,” Dupre said. “These are people’s homes; they don’t have to live like that but a lot of the apartments are hard to inspect until we get a complaint.”

Duncan said in a situation like this, residents should not wait for a response from management but should immediately contact City Hall.

“Legally, we could have turned off the water to the apartments until they fixed the problem,” Duncan said. “But that means 24 apartments without water; we just can’t do that to that many people.”

Dupre said the city could shut the complex down if the problems persists, but “it would be a last resort because of how many families would be affected.”

DEQ is also investigating the matter as well to ensure that clean-up is done correctly and that there isn’t any remaining discharge of sewage on the property, Dupre said.

Scott Wilkerson, DEQ supervisor for Southwest Louisiana, said DEQ received a complaint Thursday morning and has begun investigating the complex for illegal discharge of sewage.

Mac-Re LLC, property manager out of New Orleans for the complex, did not return request for comments and apartment supervisor Brenda Webb declined comment.

210 N. Beglis Parkway

The city of Sulphur and the state Department of Environmental Quality are investigating an apartment complex for the illegal discharge of raw sewage. Mayor Chris Duncan said the city was informed by a tenant at Parkway Apartments