Puyallup mobile home park still a stinky quagmire as city council approves more development

PUYALLUP, Wash. — People living in a Puyallup mobile home park are still in a stinky quagmire over a sewage drainage problem.

People at the Elmwood Mobile Home Park near West Stewart Avenue and the Puyallup River say a new development being built around them is causing sewage overflow.

People living there say they have to use outdoor portable toilets and friends’ bathrooms because if they use their own, sewage from their septic tanks will overflow.

They say a new development raised the elevation three to four feet around them, making the mobile home park a retention pond.

Wednesday night, the Puyallup City Council cleared the way for more development to happen next door to the mobile home park.

But the approval comes with the condition that the developer must build new water drainage for their neighbors.

But that won't happen until new sewage is installed for the mobile homes at a cost of $1 million.

Many people living in Elmwood are on fixed incomes and can't afford it.

The developer says he wants to work with Elmwood residents and will build the drainage as soon as he gets permits, but again, not until after the sewage problem is fixed.

Puyallup city officials say they're looking into several different possibilities, including extending low-interest loans to people in Elmwood.

State grants could take much longer.

Cox Media Group