By Bill Parry
Following the discovery by the city Parks Department that sewage from the Astoria Park bathrooms flowed into the East River for more than 80 years, state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) called on the Department of Environmental Protection to launch an immediate and comprehensive citywide review of properties adjacent to waterways to ensure a similar situation is not occurring elsewhere.
Last spring Parks Department workers discovered the pipes from the pool and the bathrooms at Charybdis Playground in the park were not connected to the city sewage system when they were built in the 1930s.
“Untold environmental damage has been done to our waterways over several decades due to sewage pumping directly into our waters,” Gianaris said. “Now that this possibility has been discovered, it is critical we ensure similar situations do not exist elsewhere in the city.”
The bathrooms at Charybdis Playground are closed while Parks constructs new sewage lines. The project is expected to take three years to complete.
City Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria), the chairman of the Council’s Environmental Protection Committee, vowed to hold the Parks Department “accountable to ensure that the bathrooms are safe for all to use and that the project is expedited.”
Temporary bathrooms will be provided for the duration of the project, according to the Parks Department.
“We work closely with other city agencies and environmental groups to ensure that the work we do in the park is a benefit to the environment, not a burden to it,” Parks Queens Borough Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said. “The Astoria Pool and Charybdis Playground infrastructure are unfortunate remnants of a time when that kind of environmental sensitivity just wasn’t a concern. Our immediate focus is to correct the issue and get the facilities operational and back to serving park visitors as soon as we can.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
