A Pasco County couple feels trapped by their own waste after buying a house in Holiday. Their home is on a tidal lagoon with a septic system and no more room for drainage — but the county shut down a possible solution. Tom Nodes fell in love with the patch of paradise known as Bailey's Bluff. “We came here because of the rich environment not only in the water but also on the land,” he says of the wildlife he and his wife, Leah, see daily, including eagles, hawks, flying fish and dolphins. “I do love living here if it weren't for this stupid septic system,” says Leah, a disabled navy veteran, who learned of the enclave while stationed in Florida and thought she found a sanctuary. “[Tom] figured out how we could afford it and we did it,” she adds. They say there were no disclosures made that their septic system drain fields under their backyard are full, meaning every few weeks, their wastewater backs up into their home. “I take sponge baths now because I don't want to be the person in the in the shower when it backs up because that's even grosser,” she says, adding it’s happened to both Tom and her. “It’s disgusting.” Now they're going back and forth with the county and are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to connect to a sewer line across the street. The only other option would be an entirely new septic system, which could easily cost six figures. “When we bought the house we never imagined we'd be sitting here… eight months now and still worrying about the septic system,” Tom says. The utilities department halted that plan, telling their contractor in an email, "what you are wanting is not permissible."