SUSQUEHANNA TWP., Pa. (WHTM) – According to the complaint filed in the Dauphin County Court of Appeals, a local couple spent over $138,000 on repairs and replacing what they say sewer water damaged.

When Jordan and Rebecca Spahr moved into their home in 2023, their nearly 2-acre property was part of a construction site during the Paxton Creek North Branch Interceptor Replacement Project.

“I had a lot of faith in the crews that were working here,” Rebecca Spahr says. “We talked to them a lot because they would be on our property and we would talk to them almost every day. They had a great plan.”

One morning six weeks into living there, the Spahrs found several inches of water covering their basement floor. Rebecca Spahr says the sewer water came up through the basement shower drain. She says the manhole in their side yard had a pump on it overnight during the project before the flooding happened.

“At some point, the pump stopped doing its job,” Rebecca Spahr says. “I’m not exactly sure why, but you can see that this manhole is just slightly uphill from where our basement is, so that allowed gravity to bring the sewage that was running through this line.”

Insurance covered some of the expenses, but the Spahrs are suing for compensation. The Susquehanna Township Authority, the contractor and the company that rented the pumps for the project are all listed as Defendants.

Anrich, Inc. is the contractor hire by the township authority for the project. According to the complaint it is believed there was no redundant system or human oversight of the pumps from United Rentals, Inc. when they failed. There was no weather event when this happened.

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“Unfortunately, we lost kind of an irreplaceable item,” Rebecca Spahr says. “We had a like a hand carved wooden desk that was my husband’s, which was kind of a sentimental piece. My husband and I were both active duty Marines. I retired from the Marine Corps last year after 20 years on active duty, and we got that desk when we were stationed in Japan.”

abc27 reached out to the Susquehanna Township Authority, Anrich, Inc. and United Rentals, Inc. None of the Defendants have commented on the lawsuit at the time of this article.

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