A photo submitted as evidence in a Chautauqua County lawsuit filed against an Ellery property owner is pictured. The green lines, according to the county, are where sewer lines are located. County officials argue buildings built over the sewer lines and easement areas constitute a potential public health issue.
Chautauqua County officials have filed a lawsuit over a boathouse that Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer District officials say interferes with maintenance of two county sewer lines.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Mayville. The county, on behalf of the sewer district, seeks to impose a monetary penalty against the property owners, order the property owners to tear down the boathouse and additions to their property that county officials violate an existing property easement, prohibit the property owners from building or maintaining structures over the sewer mains or in the easement area and declare the boathouse and home additions a public nuisance.
Attorney Charles Grieco writes in his complaint that the owners of 5581 Broadway Road, Ellery, built a large pool house over two sewer lines and land that had been granted an easement for maintenance of the sewer lines without the Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer District’s permission. The easement was granted in 1977, according to the lawsuit, to lay, construct, operate, alter, repair, remove and replace sewage pipes and allegedly does not reserve the right of the property owner to build over the easement area or any subsequently constructed sewer pipes.
The sewer mains are connected to the Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer District’s wastewater treatment plant, which serves 200 parcels in Maple Springs and Midway State Park. The county states the system is part of a vacuum system that makes it difficult to relocate the pipes and requires access to maintain and repair the system if it malfunctions.
“Given the proximity to Chautauqua Lake, the district’s facilities are vital in protecting the lake from contamination due to raw sewage and the district spends approximately $2,600,000 annually to operate and maintain its facilities,” the lawsuit states.
The county alleges the Ellery property owners proposed installing a pool in January 2021, but the pool was located outside the boundaries of the sewer line easement area. Those plans also, according to the county, didn’t include plans to build a pool house, patio or other structures that would have crossed onto the easement area. The district approved the plans for the pool in April 2021. District officials say they became aware of the construction within the sewer line easement area in October 2021 and directed construction to stop and the new structures to be removed within 60 days.
“Rather than provide any such relocation plan, defendants continued to ignore the district’s directive to remove the encroaching structures by continuing construction,” the lawsuit states.
In the months since, more construction took place. Sewer district officials say they contacted Ellery’s code enforcement officer, who issued a stop work order in June 2022. Construction continued in 2022 and 2023 until, in April 2024, the sewer district issued a show cause order and a cease and desist order while assessing a $25,000 penalty under Sewer Use Law Section 1105. The property owners were also ordered to remove the structures within 30 days. On May 2, the property owners submitted a petition challenging the district’s order and argued their case at a June hearing. The sewer board upheld the April order in a unanimous vote in June.
“The district’s inability to immediately access these segments of the sewer mains, due to the location of the encroaching structures, threatens the operation of the sewer facilities and presents an environmental concern and could cause or exacerbate the flow of raw sewage into Chautauqua Lake,” the lawsuit states. “If and when an operational or maintenance issue were to arise with the sewer mains traversing defendants’ property, the encroaching structures would need to be removed in their entirety before the district could attempt to fix the problem. Given the size and scale of the encroaching structures, this would take a considerable amount of time and would jeopardize the district’s ability to timely address problems and ensure safe and efficient operation of the sewer system. Additionally, any delay could result in, or exacerbate, sewage backup in nearby homes that are similarly serviced by the sewer pipelines in question and create a public health emergency.”