Broken 30 year old sewer main pipe caused raw sewage to flood houses in South Ozone Park

NY Post

The massive sewage spill that forced dozens of families out of their homes in Queens was caused by a catastrophic pipe collapse — and not a grease clog caused by residents, as city officials initially claimed.

The city Department of Environmental Protection’s six-page review, a copy of which was obtained by 
The Post, found the key clue came from a massive sinkhole that opened in a roadway above where the massive 42-inch sewer main broke.

“The road collapsing due to the subsidence of overburden demonstrates that the 42-inch sewer constructed in 1987 is significantly collapsed, and that any other cause for the November 30th blockage is extremely unlikely,” DEP concluded.

The massive 20-foot deep sinkhole revealed that an estimated 250 cubic feet of dirt had disappeared from the site.

“DEP accepts responsibility,” for the flood of sewage and resulting damages.

It filed the report with the City Comptroller on Dec. 16, clearing the way for the city to pay the South Ozone Park residents for damages.

All told, the DEP said 74 homes were flooded when the sewer line, which was built in 1987 and buried 40 feet beneath ground, broke along 150th Street, near JFK Airport.

The result mess left dozens of residents in the southeast Queens neighborhood waking up on Nov. 30 to the putrid smell of sewage in their basements.

City officials initially pinned the mess on a grease clog in the pipe and even suggested that residents may have caused the problem by dumping grease from Thanksgiving meals down drains.

How did it take 3 weeks to find this out when there was a massive sinkhole in the middle of South Conduit Blvd? When did the EPA actually show up there?

City's biggest sinkhole?

From PIX11:

Rene Rodriguez says he was dumbfounded but not surprised, when he saw a massive sinkhole open up outside his home on Manhattan Avenue near 101st Street on the Upper West Side Tuesday morning.

It’s a sinkhole he and many residents who live in the area have complained to the city about since 2013.

“It just got bigger and bigger and they would fill it up with asphalt, asphalt and more asphalt and yesterday it finally gave in,” Rodriguez told PIX11 News.

After calling 311, both ConEdison and the Department of Environmental Protection arrived to the scene. Workers assessed the damage, put up a few cones and then, according to Rodriguez, left.

“It’s what, Wednesday the eighth, 2 o’clock in the afternoon and the sinkhole is still here,” he said. “If it was Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue this matter would’ve been settled already.”

The sinkhole measures roughly 15 by 7 feet in size, and nearly 4 feet in depth, consuming an entire side of Manhattan Avenue.

The crater makes it almost impossible for traffic to get through, but it isn’t stopping some drivers from trying.

Downtown Flushing is more chaotic than ever

From NBC:

Downtown Flushing — already teeming with people and vehicles on sidewalks and streets — has become all the more chaotic amid simultaneous work on sidewalks and a sinkhole.

Two major construction projects are happening in the vicinity of Main Street and Kissena Boulevard. Nearly two dozen bus lines roll through the bustling area.

The city is making emergency sewer repairs to fix the sinkhole. The DEP showed up last week, and with no notice, brought a backhoe and jackhammer to fix the mess. The result: absolute gridlock.

Flushing Councilman Peter Koo said he called the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection. That call, and others, convinced the DEP to switch gears within 24 hours. Now the repair work is being done overnight when streets are less busy.

Amid the effort to fix the sinkhole, crews are working on widening the area’s sidewalks. The result has been a dizzying mishmash of bodies, vehicles, signs, detours and construction cones.

Senator Pothole

From the Queens Chronicle:

An immediate danger to drivers is posed by a sinkhole at 32nd Avenue and Union Street in Flushing, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) says. But the Department of Environmental Protection, under whose purview repairing it falls, is not remotely alarmed.

“This is a major intersection,” Avella told reporters. “One of these days, [the sinkhole] is going to entirely collapse.”

A bus route, he added, goes over the sinkhole, which is near a school and a library. And given the traffic that the intersection experiences, Avella wonders why the de Blasio administration doesn’t repair it: “What the heck does it take to finally get this fixed and get an answer from DEP?”

According to an agency spokesperson, a sewer at the Flushing intersection “is being inspected using a remotely operated television camera and once that work is complete any necessary repairs will be made.” He added that the agency is investigating what the nexus is between the sinkhole and the sewer.

The DEP also diverges with Avella on what to call the problem. “This is more of a roadway depression than a sinkhole,” the spokesperson said.

Kids falling into sinkhole in South Ozone Park

From PIX11:

Imran Baksh says he’s been complaining for 5 years to city agencies that the front of his home is sinking.

Baksh, who lives on 122nd Street in South Ozone Park, Queens, says what started as a little hole has been getting progressively worse.

There are now large holes in the ground surrounding the curb and sidewalk, the land under the sidewalk is eroding, the sidewalk itself is cracked and sloping, and the sinking has pulled the front railing away from the house. In the middle of the road, it is cracked and slopes towards his home and sidewalk.

Imran and his neighbor have tried filling in the holes and shoring up the curb and the sidewalk , but those fixes don’t last. It’s not long before the holes are back and deeper than ever.

One of their concerns is there’s a school at the end of the block and when the kids are dismissed, they walk right past the sinking area, where it would be easy for them to slip off the edge of the sidewalk and into the holes. In fact, one of his neighbors has two children who both have fallen into the holes when playing in the area.

Brand new playground unusable

Locked! Why?

Sinkhole.

This is behind the expansion building for PS305 in Ridgewood. It opened last September.

Staten Island homeowner has pipe problem that DEP won't fix

From CBS 2:

A Staten Island man said a sinkhole caused by a broken pipe is threatening his home, but the city said it is not their problem.

The man, Morris Indig, has been left fighting to figure out who is going to fix the sinkhole, and CBS2’s Tracee Carrasco was demanding answers Thursday night.

Water has been gushing through Indig’s backyard in the Grasmere section of Staten Island. It has caused the pavement to crumble and has created a sinkhole nearly 15 feet long – creeping dangerously close to his home.

“It’s eroding the soil all around here, including near my foundation wall,” Indig said. “This slab is starting to tip towards the hole already, and I’m really nervous that something is going to happen to the house.”

The problem started weeks ago after heavy rain. Indig believes the pipe carrying water from nearby Brady’s Pond to Cameron Lake, located next to his house, caused the massive hole.

How many city workers does it take to fix a hole?

From NY1:

Department of Transportation workers were back at it again Monday pouring asphalt into a sink hole on Stockholm Street for the third time in five days and the fourth time this month. Many residents on this landmarked brick paved street have had enough.

"I don't know who's supervising it but this is not the way to fix a deep hole and it keeps sinking in you know," said one resident.

The city filled the hole on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. But by Monday the asphalt was cracked and sinking.

"The garbage truck came in again and then it, there's a hole again!" said a neighbor.

The problem started in June when a small crack appeared next to the manhole cover where the street meets Woodward Avenue. There is also cracking on the road near the hole.

"It's a dangerous hazard here," said another resident.

Last year a bicyclist was seriously injured when he hit a pothole just steps away from the sinkhole and fell on a fence which went through his neck. After several complaints to 311 many here say it's time for a permanent fix.

Sinkhole suddenly appears in Bayside

From the Queens Courier:

Residents in Bayside have a sinking feeling about the hole that suddenly emerged near the middle of 35th Avenue.

The sinkhole appeared between Corporal Stone Street and 214th Place about two days ago, but on Thursday was only about a foot in length, according to residents that live across from the depression.

Overnight it expanded to about 6 feet in length and nearly 3 feet wide. Someone placed an orange cone in front of the sinkhole, which was only in one lane of the road, to warn drivers, but some feared it could still damage someone’s car.

The Courier reached out to representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection, which handles sinkholes, and although the media section of the agency did not respond to inquiries, workers were out Friday afternoon hours after the article was published fixing the large sinkhole.

DOT & DEP point fingers at each other as pothole remains

From the Queens Chronicle:

A sinkhole in a travel lane of Queens Boulevard has grown by about one-third since it was brought to the attention of city officials on May 26, and still was unattended as of Monday afternoon.

The hole, which appears to be at least two feet deep and filled with trash, broken asphalt and other debris, is in the lefthand travel lane on the southeast-bound service road, just past where the road forms a T-junction with Woodhaven Boulevard, across from the Queens Center Mall.

The Chronicle first brought the hole to the attention of the city’s Department of Transportation on May 26, the day after Memorial Day.

Pictures of the hole were published in some editions of the Chronicle on May 28.

DEP: No money for storm drain

From NBC:

A portion of 148th Avenue in Rosedale lacks a storm drain, leading to flooding even when there isn't a lot of rainfall, according to residents. Checkey Beckford reports.

And the Courier has other crappy DEP news:

Despite recent attempts by the Department of Environmental Protection to fix a sinking section of a Lindenwood street, the pavement at the corner of 79th Street and 157th Avenue has again sunk by as much as a foot.

The corner is totally unusable to cars, and residents worry about pedestrians walking there and vehicles possibly getting stuck in the dip.

“The hole has gotten worse than ever since they came in to fix it,” said Joe Thompson, a Lindenwood resident and president of the Howard Beach Civilian Observation Patrol. “We visited the hole this week and saw a large puddle completely frozen over. What if someone slips into that because the water can’t drain correctly, or what if a car makes too fast of a turn around the corner not realizing the hole [is there]? It’s dangerous.”

The DEP came in October to work on the street after The Courier first reported on the situation. They did extensive work on the infrastructure of the pipes below ground. This included fixing the connection of the catch basin and sewer at the location. They also inspected the adjacent ground water and sewer infrastructure and found everything to be working normally.

Once the repair was completed, the road was resurfaced from 80th Street down to the sinking area. But, almost three months after the work was completed, some of the resurfacing has begun to sink in, creating potholes on the block, and the corner still remains a problem.

Forest Park hole plugged

From the Queens Courier:

The sinkhole that has blocked the entrance path to Forest Park for years is finally fixed, according to the city Parks Department.

The contractor has finished the work to fix the hole, including clearing and upgrading existing drainage systems, reconstructing the sidewalk and stabilizing the adjacent slope.

The final portion of the project is to repave the strip with new asphalt, which will be completed once the weather permits, according to a Parks Department spokesperson.

The hole is located on the entrance path to the park from Woodhaven Boulevard. According to locals, the sinkhole started about two years ago and has been getting worse ever since it first appeared. It was most likely caused by runoff that deteriorated the catch basin beneath the roadway, the department spokesperson said.

Maspeth & Arverne homeowners may be in similar predicament

From the Queens Chronicle:

The homeowners who were forced out of their Maspeth house by a collapsing basement wall on Friday think the damage could be tied to a sinkhole in the street on 58th Road, but city agencies say the family is on its own for effecting repairs and making the building safe again.

Sean and Danielle Maher have owned 69-11 58 Road for just over three years. Danielle Maher, her toddler daughter and four tenants were forced to flee the building Friday afternoon as the eastern wall to their basement first cracked then collapsed.

Inspectors with the Department of Buildings on Friday afternoon posted evacuation orders on the Mahers’ home and one located across a small walkway at 69-13.

In television interviews this past weekend the Mahers suggested that the troubles could be linked to a large sinkhole in the middle of the street on 58th Road that the city repaired earlier this year.
Danielle Maher in published reports said she stepped in the snow-covered hole this past winter as she carried her daughter.

The hole, which is in front of the house at 69-09 — connected to the Mahers’ home — is almost perfectly round and more than two feet in diameter. It still goes down about three to four inches at its deepest point.

A longtime resident of the block said sinkholes have existed there for some time, including the one in the street in front of 69-09, and been the subject of multiple calls to 311.

An official DEP statement on Monday said only that personnel inspected a sewer line that runs under the street adjacent to the property and that the line was found to be intact and functioning properly.

I sent this story to Steve Major, who alerted the media to the sinkholes in Arverne after Sandy. His response:

I think the families along the series of sinkholes in Arverne Queens are in about the same boat. The city told them it's their problem to resolve as well despite being result of either 1) city water main breaks, or 2) a historic drainage canal not properly backfilled before the land was sold to developers by the city, IMO. No matter the cause, it is certainly not a subsurface condition the homeowners ever knew about and therefore the burden cannot be placed on them. The city is bullying people by not even investigating the cause(s). We the people need to organize everyone in similar situations. This is one of the top projects on the list of The Real Volunteers (TRV) philanthropy programs to help investigate, fix and prove who should be responsible since no one else has helped them... "The Beach 68th St, Averne, NY Sandy Sink Holes Homeowner Advocacy Program - City officials have told the residents on these blocks that each of the whole series of a dozen sinkholes in their yards and under their homes is each individual homeowner’s financial responsibility to repair. These were subsurface conditions (I believe an old municipal drainage canal not properly filled) that the residents could’ve never even known existed beneath their homes. We will contract a civil engineering firm to perform subsurface ultrasounds, exploratory excavations, etc. in order to prove the nature of the cause of the sinkholes and be prepared to testify as to those findings to force the repairs."

Sinkhole may be cause for wall collapse

From NBC:

A Queens family thinks a nearby sinkhole on the street is the reason a giant hole opened up under their home, forcing them out. But they say the city has been no help in getting the sinkhole fixed. John Chandler reports.

Watch your step in Forest Park

From the Queens Courier:

Forest Park is home to an 18-hole golf course, but a 19th hole in the park is cause for some concern.

For about two years now, there has been a gaping sinkhole along the entrance path to the park from Woodhaven Boulevard. It was most likely caused by runoff into or deterioration of a catch basin beneath the roadway, according to a representative from the Parks Department.
Locals say it is a major hazard because of where it is situated.

“The sinkhole is right across the street from the carousel, which is a major attraction for children,” said Ed Wendell, a frequent visitor of Forest Park. “It is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured and everyone starts saying, ‘Why wasn’t this fixed already?’”

The hole is currently barricaded off and has caution tape around it. It takes up almost the whole sidewalk, forcing people to walk in a single-file line to get past it.

The Parks Department is working on plans to fix it.

The sad state of present-day Elmhurst

Hi all at Queens Crap,

Today I write to you as a concerned and fed up resident of Elmhurst, Queens! I grew up in Elmhurst since a child and Elmhurst was once a nice residential neighborhood with hard working people and today it is a much different Elmhurst (second largest Asian community to Flushing, both in Queens). Little concern or care from the lower class people who moved in. The remaining who do care, I feel have just given up. Not to mention very little help or attention from elected officials, there should be an incentive to get this neighborhood in shape.

The zoning has never been changed since before my grandmother moved there and she moved there in 1940, so who knows the last time zoning was changed. Therefore you can expect a lot of out character buildings/housing not to mention distasteful and awful looking mess of properties with garbage and so on. Very few people care for their gardens or even have gardens anymore. It is just very sad.

After all this ranting the most important is the infrastructure and care for simple maintenance to bigger issues such as street repairs that are left to worsen. But with constant buildings under construction and projects going on the infrastructure will worsen and so will traffic and congestion. My thoughts are, there needs to be an immediate of downsizing of the zoning (which should of been done along time ago) and community initiative and support from at least our Councilman, Daniel Dromm. Or else all will be lost and I have some hope that things can get better. Since the 90's this overdevelopment and lack of concern has only escalated with no action of reasoning or community concern.

Here are pictures from my block which is Dongan Avenue in Elmhurst, my block is located between Queens Blvd. and Poyer Street. There is a huge sink hole that has been there for almost 2 weeks with no sign of help or concern and believe me it has worsened.


311 was called by a few neighbors but nothing still done.

There is another picture of a city parking sign down, it is completely out of the ground.

Another picture shows the endless building of apartments in the neighborhood this building being built on the corner of Queens Blvd. and Dongan Avenue (which is above the river in Elmhurst, this project has been ongoing since problems with the water table). My block isn't even in the worst condition compared to many issues in this neighborhood. I just want to show people another neighborhood in Queens that no one seems to care about and is only being abused for profit meanwhile stripped of any beauty. The usual articles are about Jamaica, Flushing or Astoria. Well welcome to my sad Elmhurst. - anonymous

Homeowner gets ticket for sinkhole

From the Daily News:

A Queens man is livid after inspectors flagged him for a giant sinkhole that opened under his lawn after Wednesday’s rainstorms, calling the violation he was given unfair.

When he noticed the 20-foot deep fissure Thursday morning, Julio Colon says the first thing he did was call the city.

“I tried to do the right thing and it blew up in my face,” said Colon, a contractor by trade, who said that instead of helping, Buildings Department pencil pushers wrote him a violation. “I could have had this full already.”

Inspectors cited his “failure to maintain,” the property even though they noted the ditch was most likely caused by the remnants of an ancient cesspool.

Sinkholes are still a problem in the Rockaways

From The Forum:

The re-emergence of a sinkhole and a water main break on Beach 84th Street near Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park – which rendered residents unable to use their tap water at the end of last week – has once again highlighted the need for the city to launch a comprehensive study of sewer infrastructure, and other flood mitigation issues, throughout South Queens and the peninsula, area leaders and residents said.

The water main break occurred during last week’s snowstorm late Thursday or early Friday, causing water to rush down a street that residents say is plagued by flooding issues and prompting the formation of a sinkhole in a driveway that was about three to four feet in circumference and about a foot and a half deep. The flooding impacted about 41 residences on a street where area residents stressed numerous children and families live.

Because of concerns over water quality, the city Department of Environmental Protection shut off the block’s water service while they tested it. Residents were permitted to once again use their water on Sunday.

“There are so many problems on that block – there are problems with heat; there are problems with sinkholes and flooding,” said Marissa Berkowitz, founder of the Rockaway’s Sandy Relief Free Flea Market, a group which she formed following last year’s hurricane to help residents with a wide variety of needs, including coordinating donations efforts to benefit storm victims. “People shouldn’t have to live like that.”

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and Brett Scudder, a community activist whose family lives on Beach 84th Street, have praised the city DEP for responding to the problem immediately. Scudder also lauded Goldfeder, Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton), and state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) for their help with coordinating efforts to address the flooding and sinkhole – which has been filled.

Still, while the problem was immediately addressed – and, Goldfeder stressed, during inclement winter weather, residents said flooding problems have long persisted throughout the Rockaways and South Queens – and have grown increasingly worse following Hurricane Sandy.

Foundations not actually stronger than the storm

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Retreating floodwaters from the superstorm created underground air pockets just waiting to become sinkholes beneath streets, buildings and backyards across Southern Brooklyn, and most people aren’t aware of the danger under their feet, say local architects and companies specializing in subterranean scans.

“From Seagate to Manhattan Beach, a lot of these building’s foundations have been scoured,” said architect Walter Maffei, “and no one knows about it.”

According to Maffei, any structure that suffered severe flooding as a result of October’s hurricane is liable to have lost some of the sediment beneath its foundation as the water rapidly withdrew into the ocean, taking tons of soil with it.

“When you build a sand castle, everybody knows the water comes in relatively slowly, but when it goes out, it moves quickly and takes everything with it,” the architect explained. “A lot of scouring occurs at the foundation level, or below.”

Underground voids, or air pockets, can undermine the foundations of buildings and city infrastructure such as roadways. This means sink holes and structural stability is a big concern and potential hazard for people living in Red Hook and southern Brooklyn, according to Lou Neos, a technician at Ameriscan, which specializes in ground penetrating radar.

“It’s all over, wherever there was severe damage from Sandy,” said Neos, who has found voids underneath buildings in Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach. “If there’s another storm, people might lose their whole house because of a void.”

Yes, let's recall the previous Rockaway sinkhole debacle.

Staten Island is sinking

From CBS New York:

It’s gone from bad to worse for some storm-weary Staten Island residents who are trying to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.

Now, they’re coping with a sinkhole nightmare. And as CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported Tuesday, not even insurance coverage may help.

On the recently renovated ground floor of Diane Spoto’s Sandy-battered home, there’s a sinkhole.

“According to the engineer, he said the floor could collapse if not fixed properly,” Spoto said.

Beyond the obvious fear that her home might cave in, Spoto said she’s getting stuck with the repair bill.

“This one is from FEMA, which you can see personal property total grant zero, and the other letter is from Allstate, which is also a denial,” Spoto said.

The estimate to repair the sinkhole is $12,000, money Spoto said she and her husband no longer have after struggling to pay to repair their flooded home.

There’s no telling how many homes in the Sandy-ravaged neighborhoods may have developed sinkholes without their owners knowing.

Engineering expert Joseph Pasaturo said in his experience insurance doesn’t cover sinkholes.