The city of Bangor is suing the Bangor Mall after a broken sewer line caused human excrement to flow into a nearby stream.
The mall’s owner failed to address a nearly 5-foot wide stormwater pipe that broke and caused a cascade of issues, which ended with human excrement flowing into stormwater ponds that drain into the Penjajawoc Stream, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Bangor District Court.
This is the second lawsuit the city has filed against the mall’s owner this year. The lawsuits come as the mall has struggled to retain businesses for years due to its deteriorating conditions and multiple letters from the city requesting repairs to alleged code violations have gone unanswered.
The first lawsuit, filed Oct. 24, alleges multiple code violations including a leaking roof and disrepair to the parking lot.
The city asked a judge to award it tens of thousands of dollars in fines and fees, including $25,000 for the five days that sewage and stormwater flowed into the publicly owned treatment works and a $2,500 per-day fee from Aug. 22 to present for discharging untreated wastewater into the Penjajawoc Stream.
Bangor also wants the judge to issue a court order forcing inspection of all private sewer and stormwater infrastructure at the mall property, as well an emergency response plan that includes contact information for the person who can take action when issues happen.
The lawsuit names Bangor Mall Realty LLC, Bangor CH LLC and Bangor Nassim LLC. The mall is owned and managed by Namdar Realty Group LLC, which did not return a request for comment.
A sinkhole formed above a 54-inch wide stormwater pipe, which typically indicates a structural defect that caused soil to be washed away, according to the lawsuit. The city’s stormwater manager, Richard May, sent a letter to Namdar on May 15 that the issue required monitoring and likely repairs. No response was received.
May found another sinkhole at the property when he visited July 8, the lawsuit said. There was also “significant sediment accumulation” in the stormwater detention ponds near the opening of the 54-inch pipe.
A second letter was sent to the mall owners July 11 saying the sinkhole and pipes needed to be repaired and inspected on a regular basis, according to the lawsuit.
Just more than a month later, the city was notified of a broken sewer line on the mall’s property, near the former site of Books-A-Million. The unrepaired sinkhole “caused catastrophic damage” to a 10-inch sewer line and an 18-inch stormwater line.
The “entirety of the sewage flow” discharged into the sinkhole, then into the 54-inch stormwater
line and into the ponds, which then discharged into the Penjajawoc Stream. It also caused sediment, rocks and debris to enter the city’s public sewer main, the lawsuit said.
The sewage spill happened for five days and the city had to repair the issue, the lawsuit said.
Bangor asked the judge to order the mall to fully reimburse the city for the personnel, equipment and material costs to repair the broken sewer line.
Two more letters were sent by the city Sept. 3 and 4 outlining the issues and ordering immediate changes. Nothing happened, according to the lawsuit.
A hearing for the first lawsuit is scheduled for Jan. 3. No court dates are scheduled for the second lawsuit.
Namdar Realty Group LLC describes itself as “the biggest buyer of malls and shopping centers in the U.S.,” and is based in Great Neck, New York. The mall was sold to Namdar in 2019 for $12.6 million, a little more than half the city’s assessed value of $24.7 million. The mall’s former owners had defaulted on an $80 million loan, forcing the sale.
