Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Broken water mains not city's responsibility


From Little Neck Patch:

If Arthur Collazo has a problem with the plumbing in his Bellerose home, he’s more than happy to pay to have it repaired. But a severed waterline under the city street, dozens of feet away from his property line? That’s another issue.

Collazo lost water to his home on Aug. 23, the same day a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rattled New York City. He promptly called the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), thinking they would fix the problem.

He was wrong.

Not only was Collazo left without water for more than a week (a generous neighbor allowed him to use his backyard hose), he also found himself saddled with a $3,000 repair bill – a bill that, as both a retired senior and a veteran – Collazo didn't think he should have to foot.



From CBS 2:

“The city has to accept responsibility for any break on city property. It’s a simple policy change,” Avella said.

Avella said the Department of Environmental Protection should change the policy, because he believes most of the breaks are due to traffic on city streets.

The DEP said rather than change the policy it is exploring a water service line protection plan, a sort of insurance policy. You pay a nominal monthly fee and if anything breaks, it’s fixed for free.

Avella said he will encourage the City Council to change the policy and may introduce legislation in Albany.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I pay a nominal fee and if anything breaks it's fixed for free. DUH!!!!

Oops, I must have read it wrong. I have to pay money and then I get something that's broken repaired for nothing. Okay, that makes more sense??????

Anonymous said...

is not this nyc problem a nyc council decision for law change ?

Anonymous said...

Time for change

Anonymous said...

Once again Avella proves how totally clueless he really is. Tony stick to managing little leagues. Oh right, you screwed that up too.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, even if the city breaks it, you have to fix it. And if they just fixed your street you have to pay extra if your main breaks to encourage you to replace it beofre they resurface.

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows that all the infrastructure funding goes to pay off campaign contributions with all the development.

The place to start is your city councilman, the thing you say is to ask them why this is the case, the thing to have is a cell phone recording their response, and the thing to do is to post it on line.

Anonymous said...

I always thought the rule was that if it's the main line running parallel with the street, it's a municipal problem. When it's the line that runs perpendicular to provide service to a particular house or building, it's the property owner's problem. That's how it's handled in the suburbs.

Anonymous said...

As the other anonymous poster wrote (and the news man stated):

the pipe perpendicular to the supply is the homeowners problem. deal with it.

Anonymous said...

YOU GO TONY, FROM NOW ON NO MORE PRESS CONFERENCE TONY, WE WILL CALL YOU LEGISLATION TONY. YOU KEEP SAYING YOU WILL PROPOSE NEW LEGISLATION YET WE NEVER HEAR ANYTHING MORE AFTER THE SOUND BITE

Anonymous said...

This is the city's fault and their dime (our taxes) must pay for it not this homeowner. For example on 80th Street - there are no trucks ordinances but yet tractor trailers and giant commercial garbage trucks roll down it every minute with no business on the block killing the roads, shaking the pipes underneath the roadway - there is no enforcement on the part of the PD - so who is responsible for water main breaks and sewer pipes crushed? THE RESIDENTS! WHY??? ENFORCE LAWS BLOOMBERG - NO DOUBLE STANDARDS - IT GETS DONE IN MANHATTAN!