A broken, leaking sewer line in the 500 block of West Magnolia Street has residents complaining of offensive odors, property owners on the street facing a Mississippi Department of Health order to fix the problem and the city unable to help.

The 500 block of West Magnolia — an unpaved alley off the north side of West Magnolia Street that is marked by a sign with the number 500 on a utility pole — includes only two homes. The alley, city officials said, is private property, and state law prohibits city crews from working on it.

City sewer department director Willie McCroy said the leaking line is a feeder line connecting with the city’s service line on West Magnolia. It serves both homes in the 500 block and one on the east corner of the alley’s intersection with West Magnolia.

The broken 4-inch clay pipe allows raw sewage to flow continuously before pooling at the top of the depression and overflowing, creating a small stream that stops about 5 feet from West Magnolia.

“The odor gets bad in the afternoon,” said Ida Burse who lives at 1244 W. Magnolia, a short street in the heart of the city off Cherry. “When it rains, the sewer goes down the street and comes this way.”

Burse lives at the end of the street, east of the alley. Her sister, Sherry, lives in their aunt’s house at 512 W. Magnolia, just north of the leaking pipe.

Sherry Burse said the problem with the line began in December and the odor has been continuous.

“It’s pitiful,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to put up with that. We pay taxes.”

“We’ve tried everything to get the city to help us,” said neighbor Vicky Beamon, who is renting the house at 509 W. Magnolia. Neither woman has had sewer problems in her home.

All the city can do for the residents is test the line, McCroy said. A city crew was on site Wednesday afternoon, smoke-testing the lines in hopes of isolating the running sewage.

The source remained a mystery by late afternoon when the crew left, although McCroy wanted to do further tests on Beamon’s home to see if the line from her home may be the problem.

“We’re doing what we can to help these people,” McCroy said as he watched the testing from the alley. “But we’ve determined from (city) maps that this is private property.”

McCroy said the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality sent an inspector to examine the leak on May 25, and the problem was sent to the state Department of Health, which is responsible for investigating environmental sewage and water quality complaints.

Warren County tax records list four property owners in the 500 block of West Magnolia. One of those is the State of Mississippi, which has a lot at the rear of the alley.

MSDH spokeswoman Liz Sharlot said health department officials have contacted two of the property owners in the 500 block. She said notices will be mailed to the property owners telling them to repair the line, adding state law gives property owners up to 30 days to repair a problem.

“We’ll go back and check to be sure it is fixed,” she said. “If it’s not fixed, the problem could end up in court.”

Ida Burse said health department officials have contacted her, but she has not received a letter. Rueben Foster, who owns the home Beamon is renting, said he had not been contacted.

By city ordinance, the city may take ownership and responsibility for a private road or street after the homeowners petition the city requesting the change and the street’s physical condition is brought to Vicksburg code standards.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, in whose district the street lies, said he has talked with one homeowner there, who expressed interest in having the city take over the street.