DEPs New Sewer System: $100 Million Project Reduces Flooding

Detailed plans for the construction of a massive $118 million flood and pollution reduction sewer system in Bayside were announced by the City Department of Environmental Protection.
During rain or snowstorms, the oversized sewer lines will provide a sophisticated storage system for the polluted sewage currently overflowing into Alley Creek and Little Bay. They will also decrease street and basement flooding in a 10-square block area in the vicinity of Springfield Boulevard and 56 Avenue.
The four-year, three-phase, construction program is designed to improve the water quality of the Long Island Sound by cleaning up its Oakland Lake, Little Neck Bay and Alley Creek tributaries in northeast Queens.
The DEPs announcement ends a more than 20-year campaign by local elected officials, civic leaders, and residents to end local flooding and pollution caused by inadequate storage control of Sunnysides combined rain and sewage overflow during inclement weather.
Helping to trigger this move, was a $204,000 matching state grant obtained by Senator Frank padavan (R-Bayside), which was used to design the massive system. "This project will have a tremendous positive impact on the Oakland Lake area," said Padavan. "Not only will this work remedy the drainage problems for residential neighborhoods bordering Oakland Lake, but will help restore natural eco-systems in Alley Pond Park."
The new tanks, says the DEP, will meet the legal mandates of the Federal Clean Water Act and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation enacted in 1988.
The project will provide five key construction features:
 Installation of a giant 3 million gallon sewage storage facility between the three junctures of the Cross Island Parkway and Northern Boulevard. The new units will contain eight inflatable dams to prevent the discharge of the collected rain water into Alley Creek.
 Construction of a new storm water treatment system at the Oakland ravine.
 Following a storm, collected pollutants will be funneled automatically from Old Douglaston Pumping Station to the Tallman Island plant.
Development of a new wetlands area at Oakland Lake which will include new parkland and nature trails.
New storm sewer lines will link existing units along Springfield Boulevard, 56 Avenue, Luke Place and 46 Avenue.
One-and-a-half miles of new sewer lines will range in size, from a modest 15 to 36 inches on 56 Avenue to a giant 17-foot by 7 1/2-foot triple barrel sewer line along Northern Boulevard.
The DEP plans call for the project to be built in three stages:
The first phase, designed to reduce flooding in the vicinity of Springfield Boulevard and 56 Avenue, involves construction of new catch basins along stretches of Luke Place, 56 Avenue, Springfield Boulevard, and 46 Avenue. It is scheduled to begin July 2001, and will be completed by the end of 2002. Cost: $83 million.
The second phrase, scheduled to begin October 2002, calls for the installation of eight dams in the systems giant overflow abatement system. The huge three-barrel sewers will capture 100 percent of all storms up to 0.40-inch total precipitation, or 65 percent of all rainstorms. The excess pollutants will be stored until the end of the storm, and then pumped to the Tallman Island Water Pollution Control Plant for treatment. Cost: $15 million.
The third, and final phase of the project will coordinate its many ecological programs: restoration and rehabilitation of the Oakland Ravine, construction of a new wetlands area at Oakland Lake, significant reduction of sediment build-up and polluted sewage into Oakland Lake. Work begins in April 2002, and ends March 2005. Cost: $20 million.
The new project drastically revises a prior DEP plan, announced in 1995, which called for construction of a giant seven million gallon reinforced concrete sewage retention tank at a cost of $60 million.
Hailing the DEPs latest announcement Jerry Iannece, president of the 1,200-home Bayside Hills Civic Association, said, "This project will deal with storm water run-off in an ecologically sound, safe and innovative way, greatly reducing its impact on APEC, our community, and the overall eco-system, and it will restore wetlands by building a beautiful waterfall park in the Oakland Ravine."