Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Crazy storms put us all up shit's creek

From NY Environmental Report:

On August 13th, New York State witnessed the greatest 24-hour rainfall, 13.27 inches, in its recorded history. The state record – last set in 2011 – was broken in West Islip, Long Island, fewer than 30 miles from the Queens border.

A flash flood watch went in effect throughout New York City, and beaches in Brooklyn and Staten Island were closed to swimmers the following day. The heavy rain had overloaded sewer mains, necessitating the release of untreated sewage directly into local waterways.

If the City’s climate scientists are right, New York will steadily become a wetter city, subject to more frequent and intense rainfall – and thus, more overloaded sewers and water-related health risks.

And at the very same time that New York’s climate is shifting, the City is engaged in what will be a decades-long effort to address a long-standing problem: the need to capture stormwater before it overwhelms sewers and treatment plants, triggering the release of untreated sewage into Jamaica Bay, the Bronx River, and other waterways.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Modernizing the sewer system to at least reduce the volume of raw sewage that has to be pumped into the water untreated is expensive. If only there was some financing system in place to help pay for it. There is? If only Cuomo didn't raid it to pay for a bridge that will do little more than shoot cars at the city like a fire hose.

Anonymous said...

Why not stop over-development and prevent home owners from cementing there front lawns to park cars.

We're Queens - We Can't Have Nice Things said...

Anon #2 - you said it!

It's rampant in Flooshing - even the Italians do it with their ridiculous orange pavers. Others just use cement. And the # of trees is greatly diminished throughout the area.

How about a moratorium an ALL tree removal? They have them in Europe. Some personal freedoms are destroying the ecology of the area.

At some point the community has to take priority over the individual - especially when we have so many dumb fucks in one neighborhood!

Anonymous said...

People who cement over their front lawns need to understand just how much water the earth absorbs -- idiots!

Anonymous said...

"Climate scientists" = scam artists.

Anonymous said...

Anon no. 5:

The scam artists are the people who are denying what's going on.