Thursday, June 3, 2010

York College has major flooding issue

From the Queens Chronicle:

York College has been plagued with a flooding problem that administrators fear may shut down a large portion of the campus, if a permanent solution is not found.

The college has been working with the City University of New York and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection to come up with a plan — one that school officials proposed at a Community Board 12 meeting on Wednesday. Attendees, however, were skeptical about the plan, fearing that it would increase flooding problems at nearby residential homes and spur rodent infestation.

In 2004, during an unrelated project to install new boilers in the Academic Core Building, the college discovered that water was pouring into the sub-basement.

The 75,000-square foot building is the principal administrative and academic facility on the campus and it provides power for itself along with two adjacent buildings — the Health and Physical Education Building and the Performing Arts Center. The three buildings are also designated as Office of Emergency Management shelter locations for the South Jamaica community.

“The electrical conduits that bring energy from Con Edison to the building are under the slab and therefore the college runs the risk of losing its electrical supply at any moment,” Ronald Thomas, dean of administrative affairs at York explained. “If that happens, three of the buildings, which conduct 70 percent of all activity on campus would be lost, until we could make repairs.”

The other problem is that employees who are responsible for performing maintenance on the engineering plant in the sub-basement must walk through two or three feet of water to conduct their business in an environment that is electrically charged. Also, persistent water can lead to mold exposure.

Channels along with sumps and pumps currently carry the water to a combined sewer, for which York has a temporary DEP discharge permit. However, the agency has told the college that it will not renew the permit and has asked that officials find a permanent solution, compelling York “to move forward rather aggressively,” Thomas said.

York College has a deep basement — 30 feet below the street level, which is typical of large structures. The average residential basement is eight to 10 feet below ground. Over a million gallons of water must be pumped out of York’s sub-basement daily in order to keep it dry and support the regular operation of the campus.

15 comments:

Snake Plissskin said...

Well, here is an example where politican agendas triumph common sense.

Someone WANTED a big building complex in a minority area (tweeding) and got some postal clerk with connections and no talent to put it together (a tweeder)

All they had to do was study a map and find that a big pond was just south of Jamaica Avenue and this area was totally unsuited for something like this, but hell, it not their problem, but the taxpayers.

Even then, with a smattering of talent, but building could have been designed to take the pond into account, but tweeders, protected by a lapdog media and a sleeping public, can do pretty much anything as ineptly as they desire.

Thanks machine. Yet another way to piss money on agendas.

Anonymous said...

Didn't the site of York College get created out of a dead zone in the aftermath of the Jamaica race riots in the 1960's, and the damaged, burt-out housing was cleared?

Anonymous said...

*sigh*

The businesses and houses cleared did not have a sub-basement that low.

The area has a high water table, particularly since they are no longer using wells for drinking water. And yes, its just around the corner from the pond which is the reason that Jamaica was settled - you know - 'place of the beaver" and all that

Years ago they had civil engineers that did great work - now they have hacks whose credentials of skin color and sexual orientation and ethic background are just as important (if not more so) than ability and experience.

Finally, if a project is in a minority area, its vorboten to talk about waste of money or even suitablity of location.

Anonymous said...

York sucks. It's the worst four-year CUNY.

Anonymous said...

Plans are in the works for 2 new buildings on the York College campus: a Student Academic Village (including a Conference Center), and the CUNY School of Pharmacy. Maybe they'll build them on stilts to avoid the high water table.

Anonymous said...

Wait until they close down half of the campus and these college kids have no where to go. Theyll put CUNY in Atlas Park to accommodate them. That neighborhood will be plagued with massive traffic problems.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the will put the dorm in Dutch Kills where the morons on that community board agreed to build one 15 stories ....

in the middle of nowhere.

georgetheatheist said...

Yoick College.

Anonymous said...

this is a problem that only DONALD TRUMP can solve.

if you remember the n.y.c. government damaged the Wollman Ice-skating rink in Central Park. it was useless to the skaters for years,until "THE DONALD "
took over.

the rink was functioning normally in about two months or less.

capitalism at work.government incompetents are losers.

Anonymous said...

A fast point that may not be relevant -- this is not a new building. It opened in 1986. This may be a new problem.

Anonymous said...

Sadly this is the only Public School (CUNY) that offers the best medical related programs.
Yeap the city and their bad intentions since the 60's , how bad they want people going to private expensive schools. The students must pay premium in order to get something decent.

Anonymous said...

This flooding has been going on since 2004, and it's not fixed by 2010. Well, that's the government that we want trust with the country's health care system. They can't even keep water out of a basement...

Anonymous said...

maybe if that young girl in D.C. asks her daddy,he might be willing to" plug the hole" in the York College
basement and stop the flooding.

Anonymous said...

York College does not have dorms. And being an alumn from the school, I've never had any problems within the area and my experience so far in this school has been great. Its very diverse and offers education majors such as myself wonderful scholarship programs. In regards of the flooding problem lets not make this a race or minority issue, we have enough threads as it is that discuss these issues.

Anonymous said...

Where is Gene del Gaudio when you need him?