The rural Somers man, who last fall protested the construction of an oil pipeline that passes between his well and his house, claims the heavy equipment working on the Dakota Access Pipeline shook something loose. The smell started about four months ago, he said, after crews went through in August and September.

“It’s a sewage smell,” Martz said. “I lived there 20 years and it never smelled like that. … It was nice and clean.”

Martz made headlines last August when he was briefly arrested and charged with flag desecration after he flew an upside-down flag under a Chinese flag in protest. The charges were later dropped.

In September, Martz claimed crews broke his water line, which led to his water heater breaking. But Martz says the company has disputed his claims.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter A U.S. Army Veteran, Homer Martz knows that an upside-down flag means distress. Martz was briefly arrested last fall and charged with desecrating the flag after he flew an upside down flag beneath the Chinese flag, with a sign protesting what he called his loss of due process. The charges were dropped in the same week. This flag still flies at Martz's property.

Martz said the well is probably 50 years old, but he’s never had a problem with it. Now, a smell of sulfur is easily detectible as soon as the water is turned on.

“I know exactly what happened,” he said. “All this heavy equipment running back and forth here… They would shake my house. It busted the scale loose in the well. Any time there’s steel pipe with water in it, it builds up a scale.

“All this equipment broke the scale loose, and it fell down into my well. Now it’s decomposing, and that’s what is causing the smell.

“They said I should put a filter in it, which I haven’t done. I didn’t need a filter system before. And I don’t know if a filter will take care of it.”

According to Martz, that smell can easily fill the whole house, especially if someone is taking a shower.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Homer Martz looks over the remains of two fences—one put up by the pipeline company as it was working, one put up by Martz before work began. Martz said he put up a fence around his well with a "No trespassing" sign because he hadn't received any notice that work was about to begin, but the company bulldozed over the fence.

“My wife has to put vinegar in the sink to rinse her dishes or else it turns black,” he said.

Martz said the water has been tested, and comes back as safe to drink. But the smell is clear.

Although Martz doesn’t know what can or will be done, Calhoun County Supervisor Scott Jacobs said representatives from Texas-based Dakota Access LLC told him they will make things right, if they caused the problem.

The company didn’t know about Martz’s complaint, Jacobs said.

“They said they knew nothing about the water odor smell. I said, maybe Homer told somebody else and it didn’t get relayed up to the people I was talking to,” Jacobs said. “They said they haven’t talked to him since (Sept.) 22.”

Attempts to reach Vicki Granado, a spokesperson for Dakota Access, were unsuccessful Friday. Attempts were also made to contact land agents from Contract Land Staff, who left business cards with Martz, and the Des Moines-based LS2 group which Jacobs said has been working with the pipeline and the county.

Jacobs said he told Martz to set up an appointment with a company representative, and that he or another county supervisor would want to be there as well.

“They told me if they did something they’re responsible, they have to fix it. But they said they knew nothing about it,” Jacobs said. “They say they want to come out and see if they are responsible.”

Martz was out of town at the time he claims the water line was broken. He said he came back to find air in the hot water line and rust in the cold water line. He said the water heater must have turned on while air was in it and burned the top element out.

“I was supposed to get a three-day notice and be able to be here when they did that. I didn’t get it,” he said.

“One representative did come out after my water heater broke, and he took down my complaints and he left, and I never heard from him again. He said they didn’t do it.”

Unlike the protesters against the oil pipeline, which connects the Bakken fields in North Dakota with a processing hub in Illinois, Martz has never been against the project itself.

“I never protested the pipeline. I have no problem with the pipeline,” he said. “I think it’s the safest way to transport petroleum products. I’d rather have it in a pipeline than in a train running by.

“I wasn’t protesting that. I was protesting the fact that, I thought I had rights,” he went on. “What would it hurt them to go 250 feet south of my well? Then I wouldn’t have these problems. They wouldn’t even consider me or my well.”

Martz said he wasn’t told at first that the pipeline would affect him at all. He has a permenant easement to the well, but the field around it is actually owned by his neighbor, Ken Anderson.

It was only later he learned the 30-inch diameter crude oil line would pass between his well and his house.

At Anderson’s eminent domain hearing before work began, Anderson testified that Martz was not notified ahead of time by Dakota Access that the work could affect him, nor told about the proceedings.

“I wasn’t there. I wasn’t even informed of it,” Martz said. “I should have been notified before this was done, because it was affecting me.”

Martz said the first time he talked to company representatives was when they came out to mow through the field, and they didn’t know about the well at the time.

“They said it’s not on our maps. I said I do have a well out there. I pointed it out,” Martz said. “They were supposed to put a fence around it. They never did, until I went out and told them about it.”

Martz said he didn’t get any paperwork about crews coming to work, so when he left town in September he put a snow fence and a ‘No Trespassing’ sign around the well.

“They bulldozed right through it,” he said.