Residents Told No Flooding Fixes In Works
The city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) heard many questions but had few answers for Forest Hills residents fed up with flooding at a raucous town hall held on Thursday, Sept. 27 at the Forest Park Jewish Center.
The meeting, sponsored by City Council Member Karen Koslowitz, brought out a standing-room-only crowd of locals fuming that, five years after flooding resulted in a federal disaster declaration for the neigh- borhood, summer storms have resulted in flooded basements, yards and streets.
The DEP’s Ed Coleman and Mark Lanaghan began with an overview of the local sewer system.
According to Coleman, there are 7,400 miles of sewers in the city. In 60 percent of the city, they handle both sewage and rainwater; the rest of the city has separate sewer systems for rains and for waste. These sewers lead to 14 treatment plants.
Before 1960, local sewers were designed to handle 1.5 inches of rain per hour; after 1960, they were designed to handle 1.75 inches an hour. The Forest Hills area has the older, smaller sewers, which eventually lead to the Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant in Astoria.
After the August 2007 floods, the DEP worked to install additional catch basins in the area and add “balancing windows” to prevent overflow into the street.
In addition, five basins within Community Board 6 were flagged as locations which must be inspected if the threat of flash floods are imminent.
Normally, catch basins throughout the city are inspected on a threeyear basis (a timeframe Koslowitz later called “unacceptable”), however, residents can call 311 to get a catch basin inspected earlier.
Since 2007, Coleman noted, complaints of sewer backups have decreased by 42 percent. He later added that 311 complaints can be super-localized, with some storms triggering complaints in the southern portion of Board 6 and others leading to more complaints in the northern half of the area.
Even if the catch basins are 100- percent cleaned, it doesn’t necessarily prevent area flooding, Coleman admitted; if rain falls at a rate greater than 1.5 inches an hour, flooding will occur.
Coleman, in response to questions from the crowd, stated that La- Guardia and Kennedy airports did not record rainfall over 1.5 inches and hour, but that the storms were so localized that rain in that area “most likely did exceed” that rate.
Locals take aim
The lesson was cut short after residents began to voice their complaints; “I just want to know what can be done so my house doesn’t flood,” one man shouted.
Joe Fox, the president of the Forest Hills Jewish Center and a nearby resident, claimed that he has seen garbage in his yard for “almost consecutive weeks or within a month.”
“Though we’ve been heard before, we haven’t necessarily had a follow-through” since 2007, he told the agency reps.
Ron Green, a 15-year Yellowstone Boulevard resident, told the DEP that he has experienced flooding at least four times since 2007. In the most recent flooding incident, he purchased sandbags and sat on his toilet bowl to prevent sewage from coming up.
“My apartment has been destroyed,” he stated. “Somebody’s going to get sick.”
Richie Taub, a local resident, told the Times Newsweekly that he had spent $4,000 to install a sewer pump in his home. He claimed that federal officials had told him in 2007 that sewers in the area were undersized by 25 percent.
“I pay my taxes; I’ve done my job,” he told the DEP. “Are you doing yours?”
Coleman disputed that claim, reiterating that “the sewer system is designed for an inch and a half per hour.”
Lanaghan then took the mic, admitting that “you aren’t going to like things that we have to say. We’ve done this a lot.”
He told the crowd that the agency wanted to collect as many names and addresses to “help us learn about the damage and the problems that you are describing.”
One store, the Sephora fragrance store on Austin Street, reportedly lost thousands of dollars of merchandise due to the flooding.
After a 311 call, DEP inspectors told the shop’s owner (who declined to give a name, citing company policy) that the nearby catch basins were not the issue; however, flooding ceased when the catch basins were privately cleaned.
The shop’s owner asked Coleman and Lanaghan if businesses are allowed to get nearby catch basins cleaned by a private company. Coleman stated that it is legally prohibited to do so.
One resident asked if the presence of the new Metropolitan Avenue Schools Campus is taxing the sewer systems.
Coleman stated that the school would increase the amount of waste that the system carries but not the amount of rainwater.
What can be done?
Koslowitz asked what residents can do to alleviate flooding. Coleman suggested installing a check valve.
When she asked what she can do in a legislative capacity-possibly via capital projects-Lanaghan told her that “there is no single thing you can do to ensure that there will never be flooding in your district. That’s not within your power; that’s not in our power.”
Wile enhancing the entire system is not feasible, “there are changes and capital projects to the system all the time,” Lanaghan stated. However, “there is not what we see as a critical feature that’s causing” the flooding in Forest Hills.
When residents booed, Lanaghan said that “I didn’t come here because I knew I was going to be popular, but you deserve those kinds of answers.”
Building a citywide system that could handle even the strongest rainfall would take 30 years and cost billions of dollars, he added.
Board 6 Chairperson Joseph Hennessy would later remark that a $24 million Forest Hills sewer project was recently completed after a 15- year wait.
Carmen Martinez of the city Comptroller’s office went over the city’s protocol for paying for damages due to claims of property damage caused by flooding.
Residents must file a claim within 90 days of the incident. Each claim will be analyzed; if (and only if) the city is found liable, the city will pay the claim.
Part of the analysis includes looking at weather reports to determine the amount of rainfall that fell.
“If your claim is disallowed, you always have the right to go to court,” she added.
‘Completely inadequate’
“I’m very disappointed in the reaction,” Koslowitz told reporters in an impromptu press conference that night. “Basically, Forest Hills is being told ‘there’s nothing we can do.’ And that’s unacceptable.”
“I’m living in this area 50 years, and it’s only in the last few years that this has happened,” she added. “I’m very unhappy.”
She promised to continue to push for increased cleaning of catch basins, and to research possible legislative remedies.
In a Monday, Oct. 1 press release, she reiterated that “the response from the DEP was completely inadequate, and I will be addressing the matter directly with the Mayor and DEP Commissioner.”
