Gennaro Says City's DEP Will Take On-Site Look At Sewer Problems
BY JOHN TOSCANO

At a City Hall hearing on Monday, September 24th on the recent flooding in areas of Queens, City Councilmember James Gennaro extracted a commitment from city environmental officials that "will surely result in solutions".

Gennaro (D- Fresh Meadows), chairman of the council Environmental Protection Committee, said city Department of Environmental Protection officials agreed to come into the local community to examine the community's problems "under the microscope" and to make Queens' sewer problems both a short- and long-term priority.

Recent flooding in Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens Hills, Cambria Heights, Springfield Gardens, Woodside and Sunnyside caused serious damage to residents' homes, basements and garages and cost them thousands of dollars in damages and losses.

Gennaro called the hearings to document the problems, to seek solutions and to try to secure reimbursement for the damages.

Among those testifying were DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, Assemblymember Rory Lancman (D- Flushing) and various Queens civic leaders.

Gennaro said he posed questions to Lloyd regarding the DEP short- and longterm mitigation, prevention and correction plans.

He demanded that DEP take a serious look at capital infrastructure in terms of sewers and catch basins. Not only should this infrastructure be consistently cleaned and properly maintained, he emphasized, but the DEP should add storm sewers and catch basins where necessary and improve those already in existence.

Marshall in her testimony reviewed the history of development in the borough. She said there were several major periods of development over the past 80 years, but perhaps the largest took place in the decade immediately following World War II.

Huge housing construction projects were undertaken to provide affordable housing for returning veterans and their families, she said.

Many of the sewers in place today, in Southeast Queens, particularly, were installed to take care of primarily the sanitary needs, and are not storm sewers to deal with storms and carrying off the heavy amounts of water, she pointed out.

It was decided that the storm sewers could wait and, adding to the problem, the land wasn't graded properly so that heavy runoff created flood conditions, she added.

Meanwhile, Lancman and state Senator Toby Ann Stavisky (D- Flushing) proposed legislation to award tax credits to homeowners in Fresh Meadows that could partially defray the costs of installing sewer line check valves in order to prevent sewage from backflowing into homes during rainstorms.

This has been a serious and widespread problem in Queens, the lawmakers said.

The Lancman/Stavisky legislation was also discussed at the Gennaro hearing.