Joni Cook says she refuses to host any parties at her house. The smell of raw sewage is unbearable for her friends.
"It's very frustrating and the smell has been this way for years everybody around here will tell you. It smells like a sewer," said Cook.
She says the lift station near her home has been a problem for about a year and a half. It's being reconstructed.
But this time, the city of Riviera Beach explained a bypass pump backed up overnight, causing raw sewage to spill into the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Signs now warn people living in this Singer Island community to stay away from the lagoon until further notice.
Jody Pearce says this recent repair and reconstruction of the lift station is disrupting her life near the water.
"We have a beautiful outside area that we love to use that we hesitate to use you don't want to have friends over because it's embarrassing now another warning not to go into the water, it's just very sad."
"I just want it to be beautiful here with no smell and a functioning station, and hopefully it will be done within the six months they told us today," Joni said.
The city says a new contractor is taking over the reconstruction phase. Once the contractor starts the work, the project is scheduled to be done within 180 days.
