Owners of flood-damaged homes in Stony Point shared with News 12 their "hellish" experience trying to obtain information from their water company about their repair claims since a water main break six weeks ago caused major flooding in five homes and the local library.

Documents obtained by News 12 indicate some responsibility might rest with the water company and/or possibly with contractors on a pipeline project that has already been blamed for safety hazards, vehicle damage and millions in business revenue losses.

News 12 met with three East Main homeowners who are collectively facing about $250,000 in remediation and repair costs to bring their homes back to how they were before the Sept. 25 water main break.

When Veolia Water's water main at 9W and East Main Street broke, water bubbled over the road surface, rolled down East Main and "infiltrated the sewer system which then caused water to back up inside the listed residences" and the Rose Memorial Library, according to the police report taken by Stony Point Police.

"Let's keep in mind this was dirty water," said Frank Dickinson, who spent $30,000 of his own funds to do enough renovation to his rental home to allow displaced tenants to return. "This was sewage that came up through the drain." The homeowners and their contractor are collecting evidence for their claims and any potential future legal action.

The noted times in the police report indicate that Veolia workers struggled for about an hour to completely stop the water discharge.

"Initial attempts to close off the valves yielded negative results," an officer noted at 3:21 PM on the day of the break. "Veolia employee advised he is unable to close off two of four valves."

An officer noted that at 4:34 PM, "Veolia advised the water will begin to slow as the valves are now closed."

In a notarized affidavit provided by the homeowners' contractor the manager of a local business said Veolia workers were "frantically chopping away at what was a days-old asphalt patch around a steel road plate."

"I overheard the men saying that CHPE buried the valve cover box under the asphalt," the author wrote.

Neighbors Margarito Samayoa and Sandy Rubin are feeling significant stress, they said, because they are both new first-time parents and do not have all the necessary remediation and repair funds on-hand.

Samayoa, a landlord, has a 6-week-old girl who was born just after the water main break.

Rubin, who owns and lives in her home next door, has a one-year-old boy.

"50k or 60k in bills waiting and no one wants to take care of them," Samayoa said. "And on top of that, we have a newborn to keep alive. It's really tough."

"I've been staying strong for him," Rubin said of her son, "but I've been putting all my spare time into trying to work on this flood [situation]."

A spokesperson for the CHPE project has steadily denied that the pipeline project bears any responsibility for the water main break.

"As we said previously, this did not have anything to do with our project," the spokesperson wrote to News 12 Wednesday, "and would direct you to Veolia for any questions about the water main break."

A Veolia spokesperson said that after speaking with the claims adjuster for Veolia's insurer a decision on the claims will be made by the end of this month.

Since September 25th, News 12 has asked the Veolia spokesperson several times the age of the segment of the water main that broke.

Veolia has not yet said how old the main segment was, only saying that the age of infrastructure is not the only factor in the company's investigation.

The length of each investigation varies depending on the nature of the claim," the spokesperson wrote. "There are a variety of factors that can contribute to the cause of a main break, and all of these factors are being considered as part of the investigation."