By Joe Anuta
Lawmakers and homeowners fed up with flooding in southeast Queens are moving forward with legal means to try and force the city Department of Environmental Protection to alleviate the problem.
Lawmakers have drafted bills and homeowners are exploring lawsuits.
State Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-Jamaica), the Queens chapter of the National Action Network and community leaders rallied outside the department’s offices last Friday and accused the city of willfully ignoring fixes to the rising water table.
“The rally was to protest the fact we still do not have a solution to the flooding in southeast Queens and that people’s homes are still being flooded by the groundwater,” Scarborough said.
The community has repeatedly called on the city to restart wells it shut down in 1996 after purchasing them from the Jamaica Water Co.
Without the company sucking water out of the ground and piping it into homes, the water table rose dramatically, Scarborough said. A former DEP commissioner estimated in 2007 that the groundwater had crept up 35 feet.
The city does plan to reopen the wells, but not until 2018, when a current upstate source of drinking water will be shut down. The city will compensate by returning to the ground of southeast Queens.
DEP did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
The department has refused to open the wells any earlier, citing the cost, which is why residents have been in discussion with lawyer Mark Seitelman.
Seitelman attended a town hall meeting in March, and subsequently interviewed about 50 people who may file property damage claims against the city in civil court.
“We are in the exploratory stage to see viability of cases,” he said.
Seitelman and the possible plaintiffs contend DEP created the flooding problem, which has forced several institutions, including York College and a nursing home, to have pumps running 24 hours a day and has destroyed basements of homes.
In addition to plans for taking the damage claims to civil court, Scarborough and state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) have introduced legislation that would force DEP’s hand in activating the wells.
“It would require the city to resolve the issue,” he said.
The bill will be introduced in the state Assembly’s Committee on Cities in early June, according to Scarborough, and has already made it that far in the Senate.
It is about a paragraph long and would force any city agency to activate existing infrastructure, referring to the wells, to alleviate an environmental crisis if that agency “by acts of omission or commission” caused it.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
