DEP cleaning up Twin Pond Lake

From the Times Ledger:

For years, Twin Pond Lake has lain neglected behind the Belt Parkway in Laurelton and has been a collecting ground for sediment, trash and debris from nearby trees. But a new city project unveiled last week will not only return the nearly one-mile waterway to its better days, but also help improve the community’s flooding problem.

Representatives from the city Department of Environmental Protection showed residents and civic leaders to their Laurelton bluebelt program that will take storm water from the area located within Merrick, Brookville and Hook Creek boulevards and drain it into the lake.

“The water is going to be collected in the catch basins in the street and will flow into the rip rap,” DEP Deputy Commissioner James Roberts said at the meeting Aug. 12.

The first part of construction on the project is slated to begin in 2011 and the remaining two parts would commence two years later, according to Roberts. The city would install the drainage system to go underground and empty out into Twin Pond Lake, located at Merrick and Brookville boulevards, at two locations: 129th Avenue and Merrick Boulevard and 128th Drive and Merrick Boulevard.

The system will be kept clean by the DEP and through an “adopt the bluebelt” system where individuals or organizations pick up the tab to clean out the lake.