About an inch of water flooded the social work senior’s apartment.

“My apartment reeked probably until Monday when they finished the final cleanup,” said Ault, who lives on the 200 block of Ann Street. “It smelled really bad.”

Such flooding occurs when intense storms blow through East Lansing, often dropping an inch or more of rain in less than an hour. Seven residents notified the city of basement flooding after the storm, said Todd Sneathen, East Lansing’s director of public works.

The city’s sewer system isn’t built to handle such a large amount of water so quickly. The water seeps into the lowest spot, such as basements and flood drains, Sneathen said. The floodwater includes wastewater and stormwater since the two aren’t separated in all of the city’s sewer system.

The flooding can be a nuisance for students and landlords, costing them time and forcing them to rearrange their days to clean, but city employees said such flooding rarely occurs and fixing the problem would involve expanding the sewer’s size, a task that could cost a lot of money.

For Ault, the flooding was a headache. She said her apartment had been cleaned by Monday, but she didn’t rearrange her belongings until Wednesday when maintenance workers unclogged a drain outside her apartment.

“I wasn’t going to unpack my stuff if it was just going to flood again,” she said.

Other houses were affected by the flooding as well. About an inch of water covered the basement floor of 422 Grove St.

Ron Whittaker, who owns the property, said the flooding occurs once or twice every year, costing him about $50 to hire someone to clean up the mess.

“You’ve got very unsanitary conditions, and I have to pay for cleaning up every time it happens,” Whittaker said. “It’s an expense, and it’s a nuisance.”

A house on Grove Street flooded because the 400 block of the street is near the beginning of a sewer line and can’t hold as much as the rest of the line, which expands in size as it continues, Sneathen said.

Mike Nystrom, vice president of government and public relations for the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, said he is unaware of cities increasing their sewer size to avoid flooding, but many cities have taken steps to separate their sewers so that stormwater and waste travel through different pipes.

In the spring of 2006, East Lansing finished such a project, separating the wastewater and stormwater in one section of its system, Sneathen said.

Governments have a responsibility to help avoid overflow from sewers, Nystrom said.

“Tax dollars are expected for the most basic services,” Nystrom said. “Emergency services and infrastructure are the prominent services expected of state and local government.”