Saturday, December 12, 2009

DEP upgrading sewers in northeastern Queens

From the Times Ledger:

A city project that would halt flooding in Bayside and filter sewer overflow in Douglaston as well as upgrading grasslands along Northern Boulevard will be completed by November 2010, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Environmental Protection said this week.

The first phase of the project, which was completed in 2007, was aimed at preventing flooding in Bayside Hills. Storm drain lines were installed at a number of sites, including Springfield Boulevard and 46th Avenue as well as areas near the Cross Island Parkway and Queensborough Community College.

The project’s second phase, which will be finished in November, is located on a huge lot along Northern Boulevard in Douglaston. The lot, near the Alley Pond Environmental Center, is the site of an old pumping station. Sewer overflow and stormwater are to be held in a large tank at the site before being filtered and directed back to a water treatment plant.

Iannece said the cost of the project is estimated at anywhere between $125 million and $150 million.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the free way to alleviate this problem:

Stop paving over every square inch of ground. Bring back gardens now.

If you are interested in further information, go to the Philadelphia Flower show and you will see how urban planners who know what they are doing and professional gardeners are protecting their city.

Here's more information on that:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2157071/your_passport_to_the_philadelphia_flower.html?cat=32

Anonymous said...

It's about time.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone been by Oakland Lake recently? The damn thing is completely eutrophied and gross. I agree with Anonymous, they really should stop this paving over business. If you want to live in a concrete jungle don't come to live in Queens.

Liman said...

Let's keep an eye on this one. The idea is that storm runoff will be captured in enormous tanks buried under the wetlands north of the Boulevard. They actually removed then replaced the wetlands and grasses.

I guess the storm sewer water is somehow to be filtered through a plant (where? next to the Enviro center?) and then discharged into the bay. I kayaked up to the mouth of the discharge unit when it was first built... several years ago now, to give an idea of the glacial pace of this project. It's huge. I'm a little concerned that a bad storm will overwhelm the system and a tidal wave of crap will shoot into the bay.

It's an ambitious idea. But burying a structure under the mud doesn't sound like it'll have a long life. Won't it get filled with mud? Remember, these are the same people who have never figured out how to stop the high water table from undermining the Cross Island Parkway a couple of hundred feet away. I have no faith that anything the govt builds will work as planned.

Anonymous said...

to Astoria 2 family homes by their massive overdevelopment neighbors all around them is never addressed. Vallone, wake the fuck up.

Anonymous said...

I live in Astoria and its even worse than you think. People are blind to the existance of old watercourses that have been paved over. Someday they will be swimming in their basements.

To get a clue ask why 18th Street was once known as Willow and where the Lynn Brook originally flowed. Extra points if you speak to an oldtimer who remembers when Ditmars Boulevard was a stream.

Anonymous said...

Ass-toria....AKA....red-lined by city government!

Anonymous said...

I hope they upgrade the sewers in Broadway-Flushing, too.