Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- A state ombudsman is slamming officials at a Wasilla senior center for not responding to residents' complaints about noxious sewer-smelling gases that were causing respiratory problems.

In a memo submitted to the board of the nonprofit Wasilla Area Senior Center Inc. in mid-August, assistant long term care ombudsman Lisa Merrill described the fumes coming from the venting system as "toxic" and said the center's failure to respond resulted in "the occupants residing in an unsafe environment."

The fumes were venting into a senior housing unit rented by 87-year-old James Eller, a war veteran with tuberculosis-scarred lungs, and companion, Carmen Reisdorph, Merrill said.

"It's not a situation that should be taken lightly," she said in an interview this week.

A top administrator with Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. however, disputed the accusations. She called the state watchdog's concerns unfounded, and said crews failed to detect any gas in the apartment.

"Nobody can find anything wrong," said executive director Robin Hall.

The nonprofit runs the senior center that provides meals and transportation from a campus just off Knik-Goose Bay Road. It also manages the five-building, 129-unit housing campus where the couple lived. The center is the largest senior housing provider in the Valley.

Friends and relatives say Eller and Reisdorph got an eviction notice Aug. 15 after refusing to pay rent until the problem was fixed. They say they initially reported the fumes over the winter. Eller and Reisdorph lived at the center together for a year, Reisdorph said, but Eller lived there alone for several years before that.

Officials at the senior center say Eller's daughter told them he planned to move out and they terminated his tenancy after he didn't pay rent.

In her report, Merrill detailed concerns over what she called hydrogen sulfide fumes, and the management's failure to resolve the problem. She said she thinks the gas is hydrogen sulfide based on the description of a sewer-like smell. The side effects the tenants reported from the fumes -- burning eyes, throat irritation -- also matched those of hydrogen sulfide, or sewer gasses, she said.

Continued exposure to low to moderate levels of hydrogen sulfide can cause problems ranging from eye, nose and throat irritation to dizziness, coughing, and breathing difficulty, according to an Alaska Occupational Health fact sheet.

In her memo, Merrill recommended managers move the couple to a different ground-floor unit and install a gas meter in their old unit before anyone else could move in.

Both the ombudsman and the seniors group say no action has been taken in response to the memo. The center was already preparing to terminate its rental contract with the couple when she presented her concerns, Merrill said.

"They just blew me off," she said. "They never did anything about the memo."

The ombudsman said she has no authority to enforce her recommendations.

Hall bristled at the ombudsman's contentions. Maintenance crews "bent over backwards for this couple" but could never locate a problem or the source of the vapors they reported, she said. The center also brought in a plumber and someone to check air quality, she said.

"All the tests come back negative. That's just (Merrill's) opinion," Hall said. "She has no proof, either."

According to her memo, Merrill based her findings on reports from four nonresident visitors to the unit who "experienced these fumes."

Hall, however, said managers asked every other resident in the building if they were aware of a problem. No one complained.

Building managers have done all they can to make sure the unit is safe, she said. It's being readied for new tenants.

Merrill is also working on a different investigation, one she said involves more than 50 residents. While she wouldn't provide details, Hall said she thinks the focus is a rent increase that went into effect last month.

Eller and Reisdorph, meanwhile, have moved out of the complex.

Eller contracted severe tuberculosis in the Philippines, daughter Linnette Booth said. He served in World War II and the Korean War. Eller, who is wheelchair-bound and on oxygen, has experienced more health problems recently, Booth said. Hospitalized last week for a throat problem, he was readmitted to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center on Monday.

"Personally you cannot ever convince me that these noxious fumes and constant chilled, stressed living condition haven't horribly impacted his health," his daughter wrote in an e-mail. "It is just sad, and infuriating."

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 907-352-6711.

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