Grease in pipes in an ongoing problem

From Crains:

Some section of the city's 7,500 miles of sewer lines gets blocked virtually every day, and discarded cooking oil is the reason 60% of the time. But in parts of Queens, that grease is the culprit in nearly 80% of all sewer backups, a problem that is especially acute near Kennedy Airport.

Experts say one reason Queens' sewers get blocked so often is that a lot of food is prepared in the city's most diverse borough, where residents, who hail from 120 different countries, might not be familiar with the best grease-handling practices.

In an effort to educate the public on the ills of grease dumping, last year the city enlisted interns from the Summer Youth Employment Program to knock on neighborhood doors as part of its Cease the Grease campaign. The teenagers visited more than 50,000 Queens households and 1,000 restaurants to remind people that used cooking oil and fat should be sealed in nonrecyclable containers and thrown out with the rest of the trash, not poured down the sink.

But grease has been blocking big city sewers practically since the pipes were laid. In 1859, a Brooklyn sewer commissioner observed that "melted grease is very objectionable." Two years ago in London, an 11-ton mound of congealed fat was extracted from a sewer, requiring more than $600,000 in repairs.

Grease causes sewer backups all over the city, but they most commonly occur in certain Queens neighborhoods including South Jamaica and St. Albans, where more than 4,800 complaints were made in the past five years, an average of nearly three per day. The city received almost 15,000 reports of greasy sewer clogs during that time, according to 311 call logs—numbers that suggest one-third of the most mucked-up city sewers are located in neighborhoods that house less than 5% of New York's 8.5 million residents.

Although some of those sewer problems can be linked to the vast amounts of cooking oil used in preparing dishes such as deviled fish, a deep-fried delicacy on the menu at many Sri Lankan restaurants in southeastern Queens, experts say the chronic backups mostly reflect the area's history and geography.

Sewer pipes in southeastern Queens tend to be 10 inches in diameter, Adamski said—less than half the typical size in other boroughs—because they were installed decades ago, when the area was relatively undeveloped. Southeastern Queens is also a flood basin, so its streets and basements are vulnerable to sewer backups after even modest rainfalls. The problem's origins go back to the 1940s, when a natural drainage area was paved over to build runways for JFK. Moreover, the area's groundwater table has steadily risen during the past decade or so. Climate change is a factor, and so is the fact that the city no longer pumps the ground wells that once provided the area's drinking 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.

“The monkey’s on my back and I have feces floating around in the basement here"

From the Times Ledger:

After years of flooding problems and spending tens of thousands of dollars to repair his building’s sewer system, a Flushing building owner says his troubles are the city’s fault.

Frank Deutschmann first started experiencing flooding in the basement of his 70-unit residential building, at 40-04 Bowne St., in spring 2008.

“It’s an ongoing struggle,” he said.

The problem cut tenants off from their laundry room and cost Deutschmann a substantial amount of money to repair the building’s boiler as well as other damages. The flooding also caused headaches for some of the eight businesses that are housed on the first floor of the building.

“We had so much merchandise damaged,” said Soo Kim, who owns a pharmacy in the building. “Even when it was not a lot, we still had to stop what we were doing and get all the employees to clean rather than fill prescriptions.”

Deutschmann said he contacted the city Department of Environmental Protection every time the building flooded. He said DEP took action sometimes to clear the main sewer under Roosevelt Avenue, but many times he was told the problem was with the building’s sewer.

A DEP spokesman said the first calls the agency received about this location came in the summer of 2010.

“DEP’s inspections found a buildup of improperly disposed of grease in the sewer line, which can cause backups,” he said.

Briarwood is apparently full of grease

From NY1:

The city Department of Environmental Protection has launched a campaign to educate the public about the nasty and costly problems that cooking grease could cause. NY1's Erin Clarke filed the following report.

Nothing says the holidays like fried turkey and latkes, but if you pour your leftover cooking grease down the drain or toilet, you may get a gift you're not thankful for.

"The grease problems will cause backages, backups in the sewers that will cause blockages. That can impact the way the sewer works," said Jim Roberts, deputy commissioner of the city Department of Environmental Protection. "In worst case conditions, it can sometimes lead to backups in homes."

That could mean that just when everyone's over to celebrate, you might end up with a stinky situation that will ultimately cost you and the city a pretty penny.

"We've spent several million dollars a year on what we call degreasing," Roberts said. "To give you some frame of reference, it costs about $20 a gallon for the degreasing agent that we use, and we use sometimes as much as 20 or 30 gallons."

In an effort to educate New Yorkers about the problem, the DEP launched an outreach pilot program. They are handing out information and tools for getting rid of grease properly.

"We have a little cap in here that they can attach to their coffee can or soda can and put the grease in and let it go out with the regular garbage," Roberts said.

The program is starting in Queens because the borough has the highest percentage of reported sewage backups caused by grease. The Briarwood neighborhood was particularly problematic.

Grease problem in Flushing

From the Queens Chronicle:

Flushing stinks. A potent sour, fishy, and greasy stench lingers in the air, which residents and visitors say is unique to Flushing.

The problem is most acute along Flushing’s Main Street, between 41st and Sanford avenues, according to Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7. There are at least two supermarkets, a couple of grocery shops, and a dozen eateries on the short 750-feet stretch.

“Flushing soup” is what some residents call this yellowish, gooey accumulation in potholes, resembling bowls of broth on the streets. Pedestrians avoid them like the plague. But when the streets get crowded, as they always do, there’s no hiding.

Residents blame the supermarket and restaurant owners for disposing their garbage improperly and possibly breaking the law.

All liquid should be filtered through a “grease interceptor,” where wastewater flows down the sewers, while oil and grease are separated, collected and recycled by a private contractor that comes once a week, said Fon Mooi Chin, owner of Malay restaurant.

The eatery changes its $1,100 interceptor every five years, and its filter every two years, according to Chin.

To avoid having to service the interceptors, some restaurants simply stop using them. But discharging grease directly into city sewers violates Sewer Use Regulations, which carries a fine of up to $10,000.

Department of Environmental Protection figures show that from 2008 to 2011, approximately 400 notices of violation for the maintenance of grease interceptors were issued every year citywide.

This can't be. According to our comptroller, Asians don't dump grease in sewers.

We've heard this before

From the Times Newsweekly:

City Council Member Karen Koslowitz recently introduced legislation that would penalize food handlers and other establishments for failing to adhere to proper protocol when discarding waste.

The proposed law will revoke the licenses of food handlers, or vendors who are caught dumping oil, grease or other toxic refuse into the cities sewer system or other public trash receptacles, two or more times within a twelve month period.

A penalty will be issued for the first offense where fines can be up to $10,000.

“New York City has thousands of vendor’s throughout the five boroughs and it is important that waste is being discarded properly,” said Koslowitz. “On several occasions, I have seen food handlers take grease and cooking oil at the end of the day and dump it into the catch basins. Not only is this unsanitary but it’s also damaging to the city’s sewer system.”

According to the Department of Environmental Protection, grease is an example of waste that the sewer system cannot handle. When discharged into the sewers, it can cause sanitary sewer overflows and interfere with the city’s sewage treatment operations.

The new legislation seeks to ensure that vendors and other establishments are following proper procedures as required by law when discarding waste.

Help for chronic flooding?

From the Daily News:

The city is launching a new pilot project to help ease chronic flooding problems in southeast Queens.

Two reverse seepage basins will be installed along Linden Blvd. at 155th St. and 165th St., according to Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland.

“We could get 2 million gallons of water a day from each of these,” Strickland told Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and community board members on Monday. “And it doesn’t require a lot of pumping.”

People who live in those neighborhoods have long complained about flooding.

A large part of the problem stems from the fact that residents who used to receive water through the Jamaica Water Supply are now serviced by the city system.

“The water table is so high because they are not pumping water anymore,” said City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans).

Strickland said the city is looking into pumping some of the groundwater from the old wells into the sewers and Jamaica Bay. But that option is costly and requires state and federal approvals.

Strickland also pointed out that some of the blockages across the system are due to residential dumping of grease.