DEP Tells Area How They Will Fix It
Fed up with flooding issues in their area, members of the Wynwood section of Woodside packed St. Mary Winfield church last Friday, Jan. 20 to hear a bevy of elected officials and agency reps state their pending solution.
Rep. Joe Crowley, Assembly Members Margaret Markey and Mike Dendekker, City CouncilMember Jimmy Van Bramer and Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley were on hand to hear residents’ concerns.
According to Crowley, the last meeting in the area was in 2007, after a “100-year-storm” caused flooding throughout the neighborhood.
However, he stated that those intense storms seem to be occurring at a more frequent rate.
At the 2007 meeting, the city agreed to work to mitigate the floodby ing, with some work to increase sewer capacity along 48th Avenue; however, some projects are still in the pipeline, notably a long-term initiative to increase sewer capacity on Calamus Avenue.
Going into more detail was Jim Roberts of the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), who noted that the $4.5 million project along 48th Avenue doubled the system’s capacity.
The Calamus Avenue project, which will begin in Fiscal Year 2013, will install a 9′-by-9′ square pipe, which will increase the system’s capacity.
According to Roberts, “all the water that falls on the BQE is intended” to go into a particular system by design.
To explain how the system gets backed up, Roberts used the analogy of a highway. As more cars get on the highway and it begins to reach its capacity, the cars decrease in speed. Similarly, the sewers will handle water slower as the amount of water it moves increases.
“You’re trying to put too much in, in too fast a period of time,” he explained. The Calamus Avenue project will create “another lane on the highway” and improve water flow.
In response to questions from residents, Roberts stated that the addition should help even with the expected increase in construction along Queens Boulevard in Woodside stemming from new zoning. New regulations require that new construction projects feature a “hold- ing tank” that would keep sanitary waste from overloading sewers and instead feed it into the sewers at a metered rate.
When one resident claimed that her basement’s boards have corroded, causing a health hazard, Roberts and the crowd implored her to call the DEP for help.
“There are ways to protect that basement level,” he told her.
Most of the problems with street flooding and flooding in basements come from when the water can’t get off the street,” he stated. “The water can’t get into the sewers.”
This is often due to debris blocking area catch-basins; the DEP now sends workers out to problem catchbasins to clean them if the forecast calls for storms.
Those problem areas are determined by resident complaints; Roberts urged residents to call 311 if there are any issues.
No “switch”
Charles O’Shea of the state Department of Transportation came to the meeting to dispel a long-held belief that there was a “switch” that would move water off the Brooklyn- Queens Expressway and into local sewers, overflowing them.
“That is a complete falsehood,” he stated, adding that he spoke to state employees who worked on the highway’s reconstruction.
“Of course the BQE is cleared of water for safety reasons,” he explained, as cars that “hydroplane,” or skid across water, can cause accidents. “There are places on the BQE where water does come off.”
Roberts added that there is a pump station that connects to a sewer system along Queens Boulevard. The DEP’s Vinny Sapienza explained that it is automatically activated once water levels at the BQE reaches a certain level.
One resident claimed that the pump overpowers local sewers.
“We have homes that have anywhere from a few inches to six to eight feet of sewer water. That’s what we’re upset about,” he stated.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt … that the pump station does not impact what’s happening up here,” Roberts responded. The sewer system handles 450-500 million gallons a day, while the pump station can only move 15 million gallons daily.
BQE barrier
Turning to another issue, O’Shea noted that Crowley and Markey have secured funding for a consultant to construct an “environmental shield” for the eastbound BQE, to alleviate noise issues for residents living on the southern side of the highway.
A shield is already on the northern side, facing the Big Six Towers; Crowley noted that the area issued decibel readings above 65 db near some of the complex’s first-floor homes, which under federal law triggers the construction of mitigation; that reading has not been found on the other side.
“Aside from sound, there are other pollutants that come off the highway,” he noted. “We want this thing to be feasible.”
