Fresh Meadows residents have reached their saturation point.
For over a decade, a section of Utopia Parkway has been getting flooded every time it rains more than a few inches, and homes along the street end up with basements, bathrooms and garages overflowing with untreated sewage, according to residents and City Councilman Rory Lancman.
“This is something that’s been going on for many years,” Lancman said, before going on to describe the issue as both “maddening” and “intolerable.”
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) conducted a study of the area and came up with several possible solutions, from raising the curb to installing green infrastructure like bioswales, which are plantings and landscape designs to filter and redirect polluted water.
The long-standing problem, according to residents and city documents, is geography. The area sits in a valley that naturally collects water, overwhelming the catch basins faster than in other areas.
“So it’s not as if the city can’t do anything to alleviate the problem,” Lancman said. “We can’t get the DEP to ultimately tell us what it’s willing to do.”
The councilman is meeting with the DEP next week to see if he can push the department to move ahead with a solution.
In the meantime, residents like Annette Shapiro who live in the problem area between 65th and 67th Avenue worry at the mere prospect of a heavy rainfall.
“Every time it rains, everybody freaks out,” she said. “It’s no way to live. I’m sick of it.”
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