ODESSA, Fla. — A homeowner has been fighting the City of St. Petersburg since 2016 after learning his house was built in a city utility easement that wasn’t recorded on his deed and which contains two large water transmission lines.
“It's worthless,” Hamid Salahutdin said of his 3,400 square foot home in 2023, even though Zillow estimated it was worth more than $900,000 at the time.
WATCH full report by Adam Wasler
But Zillow didn’t consider a record-keeping mishap that happened 95 years ago that resulted in his house and pool being constructed just feet away from 36-inch and 48-inch water mains, which carry more than a million gallons of water an hour.
Since we first brought you Hamid’s story in August 2023, more than 4 million people have viewed it on YouTube.
The I-Team has learned that the City of St. Petersburg recently approved spending almost $2 million to stabilize those lines.
“They’re just scared to death of what might happen”
Orange barrels and heavy equipment along Race Track Road in Odessa may look like a typical construction site, but Salahudin said the water mains buried a few feet below the surface make it feel more like a minefield.
“They monitor this 24/7 for months on end, and they’re just scared to death of what might happen,” Salahudin said.
According to a City of St. Petersburg Utilities Department report from February, there was a close call when a contractor installing a sewer line for a new subdivision “came within unauthorized close proximity to the city’s water transmission mains.”
“A stop work order was issued. We immediately started issuing fines,” said St. Petersburg Utilities engineer Brejesh Pryaman at a City Council meeting.
The city council approved $1.9 million to hire a contractor to stabilize the water transmission mains, assess if further damage has occurred, and restore the site to its original condition.
“We don’t want to take too much risk again on our transmission lines. We've worked with our construction manager to get out there,” Pryaman said.
“This would be a flood zone”
A break of either or both lines could leave thousands without water and would be even worse for those who live nearby.
“This would be a flood zone,” Salahudin said. “A geyser would explode out and a million gallons flowing in no time at all.”
More than a million gallons of water, enough to fill 20 water towers, flow through the pipes every hour.
Breaks involving similar-size lines have caused devastation in Atlanta, Nashville, Detroit and Philidelphia in recent years.
Those breaks prompted emergency rescues, caused millions in property damage and left entire neighborhoods underwater.
The 50-foot easement that crosses Race Track Road also runs through Salahudin's property.
A clerical mistake from 1930 blamed in lawsuit
Salahudin learned about the pipes 14 years after he bought his home, when he spotted St. Petersburg water crews in his yard checking on equipment.
Salahudin hired a surveyor, who used spray paint, flags and stakes to show the easement’s location.
He marked the path with roofing shingles.
Eight of Salahudin's 10 acres are unbuildable swamp land.
The house and pipes are in the middle of the usable part.
“It goes through the pool, it goes through the hot tub, it goes through the screened-in, it goes through the kitchen,” Hamid said.
The easement on Salahudin's property was granted in 1930 for a 36-inch water main going from the Cosme Water Treatment Plant to the City of St. Petersburg, 26 miles away, crossing hundreds of properties.
A second 48-inch water main was added in 1962.
The pipes provide 28 million gallons of water a day to 360,000 St. Pete residents.
But the original 1930 easement wasn’t recorded until 1954, 24 years after it was granted.
We asked real estate attorney Andy Lyons, who is not associated with the case, to review documents from the court case in 2023.
“What normally happens is the county will put in a utility and record an easement. That easement gets recorded. Every time that property transfers after that, the easement follows the deed,” Lyons said.
During the 24 years before the easement was recorded, properties were divided and sold with no record of the easement.
“There’s no way any of the homeowners after that would know just by looking at their deeds,” Lyons said. “Miles of these properties.”
Potential problem identified in 1965
The city knew there was a potential problem 60 years ago.
A 1965 memo says, “There are certain areas in Pinellas County through which the 36-inch water transmission line was installed without benefit of easement rights... It’s possible structures could be erected over the pipeline.”
Salahudin's property was transferred seven times without the easement showing up in title searches.
Hillsborough County issued permits for previous owners to build a house and a pool on the property, which would not have been granted if the building department had known water transmission mains were located just feet from Salahudin's home.
“It's there all the time. It's not leaving,” Salahudin said.
“They are under pressure. That is a full, hard flow of water constantly through those pipelines, so if there’s any kind of rupture in a pipe that is now nearly 100 years old, that’s going to have potentially catastrophic effects,” Lyons said.
Salahudin's case was supposed to go to trial in May.
Prospective jurors were even called.
“We were all ready, and then the judge comes in and delays it for 90 days,” Salahudin said.
The city requested and received a stay.
We reached out to the city, but a spokesperson told us it’s their policy not to comment on pending litigation.
“I’m not asking for the world”
“When this all started, I was 66 years old. Now I'm 76 years old. And they’re still delaying everything that they can to not take this to court,” Salahudin said.
Salahudin's health has declined in the past two years.
“Last July, I had a cardiac arrest. A widow maker,” Salahudin said.
His daughter performed CPR and saved his life, but Salahudin spent a week in a coma.
He believes the city could easily provide a solution.
“Either move the pipes away from the house or build the house away from the pipes,” Salahudin said.
Based on the millions it is costing to protect their pipes along Race Track Road, Salahudin believes the second option would be best.
And he even has a site in mind at the back of his property, far away from the lines.
“I'm not asking for the world. I just want to be safe,” Salahudin said.
