Rego Park residents seeking flood relief

Last Saturday's rain wasn't Hurricane Irene or the remnants of Ida. But it was enough to cause drain backups in basements along a stretch of 63rd Avenue in Rego Park.

Anyone can be forgiven for feeling a certain amount of foreboding when the weather forecast is calling for a Hurricane Irene or Sandy, or the remnants of Ida.

But residents of 63rd Avenue in Rego Park have a different view.

"We worry every time there's a forecast for heavy rain," said Cindy Adams.

The problem, say residents up and down the street, is basement flooding —and it isn't limited to rainwater.

Julius Adams has lived for 40 years on the block of attached brick facade houses that used to be the homes of Hollywood luminaries like Montgomery Clift and Carmen Miranda.

He said the problem is street drainage that actually is too effective. There are 18 storm drains on the street.

"There's too many," he said. "The pipes can't handle all the water. So it shoots up into our basements." Geysers, he said is an appropriate description. And because the street has a combined sewer overflow system, any time the pipes are overtaxed, raw, untreated sewage is part of the mix that comes up through toilets and shower drains.

Adams sent a video and photos to the Chronicle last Saturday after a brief but heavy storm struck Queens.

In the video, water, already about 2 inches deep, kept gurgling up through an unsuccessfully blocked floor drain. An adjacent toilet is filled with black fluid.

Panning past a Shop-Vac, the camera alights on standing water in an adjoining room with a large, amorphous patch of black in it.

"It can be ankle-deep," Julius Adams said. "The last time, we were able to keep ahead of it because we had two Shop-Vacs running at the same time ... It's bad and it's getting worse.

Cindy Adams said the occasional flood now has been replaced by sewage eruptions three times in the last 18 months.

A few of the neighbors suspect continued development is at least partially to blame

"It's from Woodhaven Boulevard to Alderton Street," Julius Adams said. "When I checked, it was every house on the street."

"The word is stress," said Rich Kruczek. "Every time it's going to rain, we have that stress. You don't go to sleep overnight. You keep running down to your basement ... it's not just the sewage. It's the mold. I’ve spent $30,000 dealing with the mold."

Resident Phil Ng said anything stored in his or any of his neighbors’ basements is, by necessity, kept in large, sealable plastic bins or on metal shelves.

"Everyone has lost photos and family heirlooms," Julius Adams said. "[Cindy] lost her mother's wedding dress."

"We lost photos," Kruczek said. "We lost Christmas ornaments, some more than 50 years old."

"No one on the block keeps anything of value in the basement anymore," Adams said.

Residents did complain about the response of the city, and showed a chain of emails with the office of Councilwoman Lynn Schulman (D-Forest Hills). But the packet also included a letter emailed from Schulman to Adams.

The letter detailed a bill Schulman got passed, Intro. 0076-2022, that will require the city's Department of Environmental Protection to establish a fund to help residents reduce the cost of installing backflow valves in yet-to-be determined areas considered to be at high risk.

A final report is due on Dec. 1, 2024, according to the DEP, with funding following in 2025.

Schulman's office said the DEP conducted storm drain-cleaning operations there last week.

A DEP spokesman, in an email to the Chronicle, said the city is working on things like green infrastructure as well as system upgrades; and that homeowners may need to take measures to protect themselves and their property as the city catches up and the number of serious storms increases.

The agency said even small things like collecting rainwater in barrels or setting up small gardens can keep rain from even reaching storm sewers.

"We’re in constant touch with the DEP, and we try to push them like we do all city agencies," Schulman told the Chronicle in a telephone interview.

The letter from Schulman also discusses her joint effort with U.S. Rep Grace Meng (D-Flushing) to secure federal infrastructure funds.

"Federal money is critical for any longterm solution," the councilwoman told the Chronicle.

QueensChronicle.com

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