8 MARCH 8, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
City wants you to ‘Wait’ before using water during rain storms
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
The next time it rains, the
city’s Department of Environmental
Protection
(DEP) wants Queens residents
to wait until it stops before
doing the dishes, taking a
shower or fl ushing a toilet.
The appropriately titled
“Wait…” pilot program is expanding
throughout western
Queens, the DEP announced
on March 5. Participating
homeowners and tenants are
sent text messages alerting
them that the Newtown Creek
and Bowery Bay Wastewater
Treatment plants are near
capacity — and that they
should minimize their water
use in order to prevent sewer
overfl ows from spilling into
already polluted waterways
such as the Newtown Creek
and Flushing Creek.
The pilot program area
of Queens covers all neighborhoods
north of the Jackie
Robinson Parkway and west
of the Van Wyck Expressway,
as well as portions of Kew
Gardens Hills and Briarwood.
According to advocates,
the Wait Program is geared
at educating the public about
where their dirty water winds
up aft er going down the drain.
Wastewater produced whenever
someone washes clothes
or dishes, or even fl ushes a
toilet, travels into the city’s
vast underground sewer system,
destined for one of many
sewage treatment plants for
cleanup and processing.
But in a heavy rain event,
not all of the storm runoff
and wastewater winds up in
the sewage treatment plants.
When the plants hit capacity,
excess wastewater is expelled
through combined sewer overfl
ows into waterways across
the city. About 90 percent of
the overfl ow is comprised of
storm runoff , and the rest is
household wastewater containing
detergents, chemicals
and raw sewage.
Willis Elkins, program director
of the Newtown Creek
Alliance, noted that combined
sewer overfl ows “are one of
the major water quality issues”
aff ecting the creek, which is
also a designated Superfund
site due to decades of industrial
pollution.
“There is an immediate
opportunity for residents
to reduce pollution by being
aware of when sewage
treatment plants hit capacity
during rain events and overflow
into local waterways,
and then taking action to not
create additional wastewater
during these crucial periods,”
Elkins said.
Flushing Creek and Flushing
Bay are also combined sewer
overfl ow points. The Guardians
of Flushing Bay hopes
that the Wait Program will
help more people understand
the pollution problem while
also appreciating “the natural
beauty of the waterways.”
“The Flushing waterways
have long been plagued by
sewage and stormwater pollution
from combined sewer
overfl ows,” the Guardians of
Flushing Bay said in a statement.
“Many residents in the
Flushing Bay and Flushing
Creek watersheds are unaware
that their sewage may
be going into the waterways
when it rains.”
Wait Program texts will be
activated during heavy rain
events as the Bowery Bay
and Newtown Creek plants
approach capacity. Once the
plants are back to normal
strength, participants will
receive text alerts thanking
them for their cooperation.
The DEP will monitor participants’
water consumption
through automated water
meters in each building. The
program starts this April
and runs through May 2019;
participants may opt out of
the program at any time.
Map courtesy of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection
“While we invest hundreds
of millions of dollars
every year to build
infrastructure that protects
the health of local
waterways, the Wait Program
engages citizens and
allows them to directly
contribute to the protection
of our environment,”
DEP Commissioner Vincent
Sapienza said.
Visit www.nyc.gov/dep/
wait for more information.
Queens Catholic HS principals demand action from lawmakers on gun violence
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
The principals of 18 Catholic
high schools in Brooklyn and
Queens signed a joint open
letter calling on elected offi cials to
take “long overdue” action to prevent
a repeat of the deadly school shooting
in Parkland, FL, last month.
In the letter that The Courier
received on March 1, the 18 principals
expressed sympathies to the
faculty, staff , parents and students
of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School, where 17 people were slaughtered
on Feb. 14. The massacre — in
which a former student, carrying a
semi-automatic rifl e, shot teenagers
and the adults who tried to protect
them — reignited a national debate
over gun control.
“We stand in support of the
Parkland, FL survivors as they
draw strength in knowing that
their efforts to effect necessary
change are heard,” the letter states.
“We call on our elected leaders to
do everything necessary to help
us protect students against senseless
acts such as the one in Florida
and too many others across the
country.”
Among the signees representing
Queens Catholic high schools were
Darius Penikas of Archbishop
Molloy High School in Briarwood;
Richie Diaz of Cathedral Preparatory
School and Seminary in Elmhurst;
Geri Martinez of Christ the
King High School in Middle Village;
Edward Burns of Holy Cross High
School in Flushing; James Castrataro
of Msgr. McClancy Memorial
High School in East Elmhurst; Susan
Nicoletti of St. Agnes Academic High
School in College Point; Patrick Mc-
Laughlin of St. Francis Preparatory
School in Fresh Meadows; William
Higgins of St. John’s Preparatory
School in Astoria; and Sr. Kathleen
McKinney of The Mary Louis Academy
in Jamaica Estates.
In the weeks following the Parkland
massacre, Marjory Stoneman
Douglas students have led a nationwide
campaign calling on elected
offi cials to increase gun regulations
in order to prevent another mass
shooting from happening. While
some have called for a new assault
weapons ban and laws that would
prevent individuals with criminal
records or mental health issues
from buying fi rearms, others have
suggested more defensive measures.
The debate spurred companies
to break ties with the National Rifl e
Association — which has repeatedly
dismissed calls for new gun regulations
— and prompted retailers such
as Walmart and Dick’s Sporting
Goods to impose new age restrictions
on firearm sales (Dick’s Sporting
Goods also announced it would stop
selling assault weapons).
The joint letter from Brooklyn
and Queens principals seemed to
allude to President Donald Trump’s
suggestion that teachers be allowed
to carry fi rearms to potentially stop
an active shooter.
“As principals, we are responsible
for carrying out the mission of our
schools, the education of our students
and the safety and security of the
adolescents in our care,” the letter
continued. “As educators, we are
facing a world where we are increasingly
called upon to become the last
line of defense against unspeakable
horrors.”
Noting that their current students
“are the leaders and policy makers of
tomorrow,” they stressed the importance
of standing “as examples to
them and the morality, justice and
peace which we expect them to go
forth and spread in the world.”
“Collectively, we as Catholic educators
— as Americans — know that
these attacks must stop, and the time
for action on all levels is long overdue,”
the letter concluded. “We unite
in one voice to call upon our elected
offi cials to eff ect nothing less than
meaningful, proactive change.”
