What's causing Queens Village pipes to fail?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Gremlins with teeny-tiny drills are burrowing their way underneath Winchester Boulevard in Queens Village and creating pinholes in copper pipes leading from water mains to the houses between Braddock and Hillside avenues.

It’s as good an answer as the ones homeowners on Winchester are getting for why connector pipes are failing at an alarming rate; so often — on multiple occasions for individual homes in some cases — the company that used to insure the pipes has stopped doing so along that part of the street.

Tom Garrett, who has owned his home for 40 years, said pipes began failing in about spring 2015.

“My neighbor had to get his pipes replaced,” he said. “Then a woman down the street. We didn’t think anything of it.”

By the time his pipe had to be replaced for the first time, people were becoming suspicious.

He now estimates that more than 20 replacements have had to take place, including one neighbor who has required it six or seven times.

“Plumbers who’ve been doing the replacements say it’s being caused by electrolysis. Electricity leaking from somewhere causing pinhole leaks in the pipes,” he said.

Pipes run dry in Whitestone

From the Times Ledger:

Residents of 2nd Avenue in Whitestone said they have been living each day not knowing if they will have water due to insufficient pipes.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was joined by eight homeowners from 2nd Avenue to call on the city and the DEP to address serious quality-of-life issues regarding their water. Avella said that for years eight homes on 2nd Avenue between 147th Street and 147th Place have dealt with flooding conditions and poor water pressure, if they have had water at all. Residents said the flooding issue was resolved when the city Department of Transportation resurfaced their road but the city has not addressed the lack of water.

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Avella said he has reached out to DEP since 2013 about the water problem and has gotten zero response.

Residents are blaming the lack of water on an inadequate, two-inch wide water supply pipe that is not able to service all of the homes on the block. While the DEP has acknowledged in the past that the pipes are not wide enough, Avella contends the DEP has refused to take any action.

Foreclosure floods elderly woman's home

From WPIX:

In front of her home on Poplar Street, the gutter had a deep and wide sheet of ice. It extends to the house next door, which has sat empty since 2014, according to Lama's family and their neighbors.

Cascading down the far wall of the house next door are 15-foot long, 3-inch thick icicles. All of the ice on a cold Friday gives a strong indication of what went wrong here.

"Water from the bathroom pipe broke," said Joseph Lama, 72, Fanny Lama's son. "It leaked down into the basement."

He then showed PIX11 News what the result of possibly five days of water leakage looks like. He opened up the cellar door of the foreclosed home next door to show that the crawl space underneath was filed with close to three feet of water.

Seeking solutions for Fresh Meadows flooding

Daily News photo

From the Queens Tribune:

The Department of Environmental Protection is not doing enough to stop the flooding that has plagued Fresh Meadows for decades, residents said at a town hall meeting last Wednesday.

Billed as a meeting “to educate homeowners on how to protect their property from rainwater” and to inform them about recent infrastructure developments to reduce flooding, the town hall at the Utopia Jewish Center turned into a platform for homeowners to vent their frustration about a problem that’s been plaguing their neighborhood since the 1940s.

The strategies addressed two kinds of flooding, both of which occur in Fresh Meadows. The first is sewer backups, caused when sewers exceed their capacity due to heavy rain, and overflow out of basement toilets or floor drains. The second is street-level flooding.

Causes of flooding can range from cooking grease in the sewer pipes to tree roots to roads that slope the wrong way. In Utopia, chronic flooding has led to an abundance of theories on the causes – like a special valve that prevents flooding to LaGuardia airport and redirects the water towards Utopia.

That rumor was dismissed by the DEP. But either way, it’s clear that the problems with flooding in Utopia and Fresh Meadows are systemic. The question is how much the city can, or will, do.

Rockaway gas pipeline completed

From The Wave:

For the past week or so, natural gas has been flowing underneath Rockaway’s beaches through a massive 26-inch diameter pipeline.

The activation of a new 3.2-mile pipeline on May 15 allows for liquefied natural gas to flow through the Rockaway Peninsula and into Brooklyn to satisfy the growing demand of 1.8 million customers in Queens and Brooklyn.

The fracked-gas transmission pipeline called the Rockaway Delivery Lateral has been controversial among anti-fracking activists and environmental groups since the inception phase in 2009.

The additional pipeline, which began construction on June 9, 2014, extends from the existing Lower New York Bay Lateral, which is in the Atlantic Ocean, running parallel to the coast of the Peninsula.

The Rockaway Delivery Lateral runs across Fort Tilden and Jacob Riis Park – wetlands and recreational areas – to a facility used to meter and regulate the flow of natural gas, located on Floyd Bennett Field in an abandoned airplane hanger, within the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Williams Partners’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC’s (Transco) pipeline project increases the compression at three existing Transco facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and provides 100,000 dekatherms more per day to be transferred to the new meter and regulating station on Floyd Bennett Field.

“That’s the point where we kind of hand off the gas,” said Williams Spokesman Chris Stockton. “It measures how much gas flows through the line and it also regulates the pressure.”

In total, 647,000 dekatherms per day can be be transmitted through the new Rockaway Pipeline to the National Grid distribution system. From there, the National Grid Pipeline takes the natural gas up Flatbush Avenue and into other communities.

Burst pipes send Atlas stores packing

From the Queens Courier:

Two separate pipe bursts in The Shops at Atlas Park last month damaged five stores in the shopping center — and the future of some of those affected businesses is still unclear.

“There were two separate pipe bursts, one in Gymboree and one in Shiro of Japan, about 12 hours apart from each other,” said Peter DeLucia, a representative from The Shops at Atlas Park. “Some stores have since opened and some are still fixing up.”

The pipe that burst on Feb. 16 at Shiro of Japan damaged that store, along with Maidenform, J. Jill and Chico’s. Since the burst, Shiro and Maidenform have reopened, but the same could not be said for J. Jill and Chico’s.

According to DeLucia, both J. Jill and Chico’s are closed until further notice, and he said that he could not comment on whether they will re-open at this point.

But a source familiar with the situation claimed that those stores would not re-open. The stores have been cleared out and both store’s signs have been taken down.

Rockaway gas pipeline almost complete

From Rockaway Times:

The Rockaway Lateral Transco Pipeline Project, running from the Atlantic Ocean, through Riis Park, and up Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, is expected to be complete by March 2015.

“We have been working nearly around the clock and remain on schedule to place the project into service by the end of the first quarter 2015,” Williams spokesperson Chris Stockton said. The Rockaway Lateral Project began construction on June 9, 2014. The project includes one mile of horizontal directional-drilled pipeline and 2.2 miles of conventionally laid 26” pipeline connected to an existing Transco pipeline in the Atlantic Ocean. National Grid’s portion of the project, the Brooklyn Queens Interconnect Project, which is complete, will connect with the Transco project. Together, the pipeline projects will bring additional natural gas into Rockaway, Brooklyn and other parts of Queens.

Williams, the company behind the Transco pipeline, has a Rockaway Community Grants program “to benefit the environment and local communities within the NYC areas affected by Williams’ Rockaway Lateral project.” The company awards grants of up to $15,000 per funding cycle for each program. In October 2014, 13 organizations received grants, totaling $115,000. Some groups included the Rockaway Point Volunteer Emergency Services, the Breezy Point Cooperative, the Broad Channel Historical Society for the Collection Preservation project, Beautify Rockaway Beach, the Roxbury Volunteer Firehouse, the Rockaway Youth Task Force and more.

Concern about gas pipeline under Rockaway

From WPIX:

Every night, a group of Rockaway residents watches with fear and worry as work is underway out at sea for the little publicized Rockaway Lateral Project Pipeline.

“It’s doesn’t matter if it’s on federal property,” Sandra Schunk told PIX11. ” It’s still our beach, our lives.”

Residents say the pipeline has gotten little attention because it’s mostly on federal property, the Gateway National Recreational Area.

It will eventually bring 647,000 dekartherms per day of fracked natural gas from the Marcellus Shale under high-pressure, beneath the beach, under a golf course, under the Marine Parkway bridge, through Floyd Bennett Field and eventually to distribution lines of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Community board member John Gaska told PIX11, “The board approved the pipeline. We have concerns about safety but it’s a positive for the community. Gas will be cheaper.”

When I saw the title of the video, "Queens residents fighting construction of Rockaway Pipeline", I thought I was going to read about an actual fight, but instead this report was just about a bunch of folks who are concerned but not doing much of anything about it. Oh well.

Pipes aplenty

Lots of homeowners have pipes running from their basements to the outside of their houses.
Excessive paving means the water has nowhere to go but the basement, and then when it's pumped out, it has nowhere to go but the street.
This contributes to the overburdening of the sewer system.

Plain as the nose on your face

Got flooding? I think I may know why.

This house at 1867 Stockholm Street is for sale. Here is a screenshot of the original listing:

You'll notice that the ad says that it's a 2-family with 3 units, and there are 9 bedrooms, 2 of which are in the basement. The following photos were also attached.



After DOB complaints were put in and the homeowner refused entry, the ad was changed to omit the part about the 2-bedroom basement apartment. The photos remain, however.

Now if the house is for sale, why not just make an appointment with the realtor to visit it undercover? This has been done in the past. The realtor should also be fined for advertising an illegal conversion. And it's not the first time...

Of course, Bill DeBlasio is in charge now, and he thinks these living arrangements are just dandy, so expect a lot more ignoring from the DOB.

Sad day in Harlem

From the Daily News:

In the months before a gas leak leveled two E. Harlem buildings, there were telltale signs of potential trouble.

Tenants say they complained repeatedly about strong gas odor in the buildings, making calls to 311 as recently as Wednesday morning.

And as of Wednesday, the city had yet to check to see if the owner of one of the doomed buildings had ever repaired a dangerous wall crack discovered in 2008.

Nine months ago a contractor installed a new gas line from the basement to the 5th floor in one of the buildings, and was allowed to sign off on his own work under a common practice known as “self-certification.”

At the time, the installation was “audited” by the city to ensure there were no leaks and as of Wednesday officials said there was no suggestion the new pipe caused the leak.

Gas pipeline hearing tonight

From Metro:

The first of two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Public Hearings over a proposed Rockaway gas pipeline will be taking place at the Knights of Columbus Rockaway Council 267 at 333 Beach 90th Street starting at 7 p.m.

The pipeline, to be built by Williams Transco and National Grid, is being hit with much of the same criticism as the Spectra Pipeline planned for lower Manhattan.

Both pipelines would bring shale gas — produced by fracking — to the city. Opponents are complaining that the review period has not been long enough and that environmental and safety concerns are not being adequately considered.

This pipeline would be embedded in the ocean floor, run under the sandy bank of Riis Park Beach, cross below the Rockaway Inlet and continue up Flatbush avenue to a Metering and Regulation facility. The facility would be built in two of the old abandoned airplane hangars at Floyd Bennet Field.

Broken pipe threatens Jamaica Bay environment

From the Daily News:

A busted drain pipe and valve system is slowly ruining the ecology of Jamaica Bay, driving away birds that usually breed along two freshwater ponds.

The freshwater ponds, located in Broad Channel near the entrance to the Gateway National Recreation Area, are filling up with salt water from Jamaica Bay.

Local environmentalists are calling on the National Park Service to move quickly on a project that would replace the decades-old drainage and valve systems on the ponds.

“It cannot be overstated how critical this is to the ecology of the bay,” said Dan Mundy Jr. of the Jamaica Bay Eco-Watchers. “This is such a unique area because it includes wetlands and freshwater ponds.”

Mundy pointed out the ponds were part of a master vision and design by then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses for the Jamaica Bay area.

The mix of freshwater and wetlands draws a large number of wildlife and the site is a haven for bird watchers.

Homeowners must pay for sewer repairs

From the Times Ledger:

Laurelton homeowners say city sidewalk trees are wreaking havoc with their sewer lines, leaving them few options but to replace the lines themselves at a hefty cost.

Through its Forestry Services, the city Parks Department removes dead sidewalk trees, prunes their branches and repairs sidewalks damaged by the trees’ roots. A spokesman for the department said the responsibility of maintaining and repairing sewer systems falls on the shoulders of property owners.

“Tree roots cannot damage sound pipes and only intrude if they have been afforded access by a break or perforation,” the spokesman said. “Older sewage lines sometimes rupture due to deteriorating joints or settling earth, seeping water and nutrients into the surrounding soil. Once roots discover these leaks, they tend to grow towards and enter the source.”

“Parks does not permit the removal of healthy trees, even in cases where roots may be interfering with a sewer,” the spokesman continued. “There are a number of temporary fixes that can be explored, including the use of commercial drain cleaning products or professional root clearing services. However, the only real lasting solution is to repair the defective sewer line with impervious, watertight piping.”

City needs to upgrade underground pipes

From the NY Post:

There’s a crisis beneath the streets: New York’s underground network of iron pipes has been decaying for decades. Leaky pipes and water-main breaks mean that untold thousands of gallons of water every year never reach New Yorkers’ homes, schools or businesses. This ghastly waste is reflected in soaring water bills.

The city must modernize its procurement policies. It now excludes polyvinyl-chloride pipe manufacturers from bidding on city contracts, virtually guaranteeing that corroded iron pipes will be replaced by newer, corrosion-prone pipes.

Unlike traditional iron pipes, PVC pipes don’t corrode, last longer and cost about 70 percent less. Rather than soaking ratepayers, New York should open its bidding process and let the best technology at the best price determine the outcome.