Miscommunication, faulty construction led to
slow South Ozone Park fl ooding response: DEP
BY MAX PARROTT
The City Council Committee
on Environmental
Protection held an oversight
hearing last week on the
response to the flooding in
South Ozone Park that inundated
about 80 homes with
sewage in the early hours of
Nov. 30.
The hearing, led by Committee
Chair Costa Constantinides
and Councilwoman
Adrienne Adams, offered
testimony from victims
about the aftereffects of the
flooding and the Department
of Environmental Protection
(DEP) Comissioner Vincent
Sapienza, who clarified that
the incident was caused by
a perfect storm of miscommunication
and engineering
problems.
Sapienza testified that it
took the agency seven hours
and a dozen 311 calls to realize
that the problem was not
localized, but area-wide.
Then, once the agency
tracked down the sewer that
was causing the blockage
to the 150th Street Bridge
overpass, they could not get
to it because in the 1980s,
the DEP allowed the state
to build a highway over the
sewer that blocked access.
Instead of clearing the
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blockage, the agency had to
install a system that would
direct water flow around the
blocked sewer.
Sapienza said that the
agency is currently evaluating
whether to abandon the
sewer entirely in the future.
In the wake of the incident
— the city’s largest
sewage backup in five years
— residents testified about
the mounting expenses of reclaiming
their homes.
“Many families have
missed work and missed
school, some are concerned
about black mold in their
homes, and others don’t
know where to start because
they don’t have the means to
begin repairs,” said Adams.
Though Comptroller
Scott Stringer granted an
emergency procurement of
funds in order to clean affected
residents’ basements
of sewage and replace damaged
boilers, residents said
that they have had to file additional
claims for other resulting
personal expenses.
Leron Harmon testified
that his family is still living
in a hotel because his house
is uninhabitable.
Heat vents from his basement
carried the smell of
sewage through his entire
house forcing him to throw
out his living room set and
two mattresses.
“The smell from the sewage
went through every
single room,” Harmon said.
Reach reporter Max Parrott
by e-mail at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260-2507.
South Ozone Park residents affected by the area’s Thanksgiving weekend flooding testified about the
City’s response on Dec. 11. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
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DAVID CLOSE, Artistic Director & Conductor
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45-21 194th Street
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photo credit: Dominick Totino design: Stephen Taylor
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