The newly cleaned sewers in southeast Queens were to put to the test after a week with several days of rainfall.
The area received approximately two inches of rain over the past week, including a couple of heavy rainfall’s that brought flood advisories to the area.
In a survey conducted in June 2008 storm water drainage and sewer maintenance was rated as one of the three worst services in the Jamaica area. Prior to the sewers being cleaned out it was found that debris constituted more than 20 percent of pipe volume there.
“[The DEP] started this effort in Jamaica because we know that localized flooding is a problem for some residents,” said DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway.
A spokesperson in City Councilmember Leroy Comrie’s office said he knew of no complaints of flooding from this past week’s rainfall.
The DEP said the work done in the sewers will help reduce combined sewer overflow (CSO) – a combination of stormwater and wastewater that can be discharged when sewers surpass capacity – by up to 25 percent.
For Yvonne Reddick, the district manager for community board 12, the cleaning of the sewers is not enough to alleviate the flooding.
“We need a whole new drainage system,” she said.
Reddick said that the old seepage basin is not sufficient for the community and that a new catch basin is needed for several areas if the flooding is to stop, adding that some residents have two pumps in their basements for the flooding.
“We’ll see results for a little while, but once there is a back up or big storm, it will flood again,” she said regarding the sewers cleaning.
