Napa County couple says American Canyon drainage is flooding property

NAPA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A Napa County couple says the city of American Canyon is being a bad neighbor because poor drainage on the city-owned lot next door is causing flooding on their property.

It's become a non-stop battle for Jamie and Lenny Holder, who are trying to keep water away from their property.

The Holders say the water is coming from a vacant lot next door that's owned by the city of American Canyon. They claim the dirt mounds, now covered by grass, dumped there by the city 25 years ago cause the water to drain directly at them.

"Never to this degree, never did our pool house flood, did our back yard flood," said Jamie Holder. "Never did we run three sump pumps, never did we stay up 24-seven."

Now the walls of the pool house are so damp, they peel away and the Holders' three sump pumps are running day and night.

As for their pleas to the city, Larry says they've gotten no response.

"We don't think we've made any changes to the property we've owned for at least 15 or so years," said American Canyon Public Works Director Jason Holley. "So in that time in between, there have been significant rains. There weren't problems necessarily that we're aware of so we're not sure what the issues are."

"We've been contacting them via email, via phone calls," said Holder.

It's starting to rain again. "We have to man the pumps and keep them running," said Lenny. "That's all we can do."

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