LANCASTER, N.Y. — About three inches of water filled the basement of a 4th Avenue home in Lancaster Sunday night into Monday morning, but homeowners say it could've been worse.

"Luckily, it was rainwater," resident Sandy said.

A few months ago, she and Don Bernier weren't so lucky.

"The last time, in June, when they had the big flood here, two feet were in the basement, and there was raw sewage that came up," said Bernier.

And one of their neighbors says sewage filled her basement. Others who live in the neighborhood say they either had sewage flood their homes during bad storms or heard from neighbors dealing with the problem.

"We have different areas of the village that have shown tendencies to have problems, and that's one of the new ones," Mayor William Schroeder said.

Schroeder says the village has spent a quarter of a million dollars in testing and engineering to figure out what's causing the flooding in problem spots. Part of the issue: items like sump pumps or gutter drains hooked into the sanitary sewer lines.

"What we're coming up with, in more and more cases than not, are illegal sewer hook-ups," said Schroeder. "All that extra water goes into a sewer line that was never intended to have that amount of water put into it."

Schroeder says public works crews plan to meet with residents on Thursday following complaints made because of this flooding. He says they'll take video of the lateral lines running from the street to homes to see if they can spot the problem. According to him, that's usually where issues are found — and lateral lines are considered homeowners' responsibility.