SNIFFING IT OUT
Sewer backup still mystery, fix to take days
The cause of a crippling clogged sewer line in Queens is still unknown — and city officials say repairs and answers are still days away.
A backup in a sewer line serving 300 homes in a 15block swath of South Jamaica just north of Kennedy Airport backed up raw, fetid sewage into about 80 residences on Saturday.
“The repairs may take several days,” Environmental Protection Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said at a briefing with city officials Monday. “Any wastewater that’s generated from that neighborhood will bypass the blockage … and there will no longer be backups.”
The Department of Environmental Protection set up the bypass system Sunday evening.
“We’re pumping around 10 million gallons a day of wastewater past the blockage to relieve this community of further backups,” Sapienza said. “It’s tough work, and the icy rain yesterday just made it even tougher.”
The cause of the backup won’t be known until DEP can get inside the 40-footdeep sewer.
Sapienza said on Saturday that the clog appeared to be caused by people pouring grease down their drains on Thanksgiving, a comment that angered residents.
But on Monday, he stressed that he simply meant the vast majority of these kinds of backups are related to cooking grease. “Until we actually get in that sewer, we won’t know for sure,” Sapienza said.
During a visit to the neighborhood Monday afternoon, Mayor de Blasio was contrite about the city’s handling of the problem.
“There’s a lot of frustration that calls to 311 went in, and the response was not as quick as it could have been,” the mayor said. “I think we obviously need people to know that is not acceptable. Even a few hours went by, and the response was not what it could have been.”
Speaking alongside the mayor, Sapienza said the 311 calls began arriving very early on Saturday. At first, he said, operators believed the calls represented isolated problems that did not warrant a widespread response. “It took probably a few hours before someone connected the dots to say, ‘Hey, this just isn’t a sporadic problem, but it’s very concentrated in one area. Something is going on.’ ”
Repairing the sewer line won’t be easy, de Blasio said.
“It’s a very complex problem — this is not an easy one. This is something that happens very, very rarely. It’s been extremely difficult for the crews to deal with,” the mayor said. He added: “If a family has a need, we are going to do our damnedest to address it right away.”
Earlier Monday, de Blasio said he wanted to “assure all the homeowners we’re going to stand with them and we’re going to help them get back on their feet and address their issues, case by case, home by home.”
DEP, which runs the city’s sewer system, admitted responsibility. This means homeowners can file compensation claims for repairs they’ve made through the comptroller’s office, and they have 90 days to do so.
“The comptroller will cut checks,” Sapienza said. “We’ve heard from some homeowners that they don’t have the out-of-pocket means to start the work, and so our Office of Emergency Management is working for them.”
Comptroller Scott Stringer visited the area on Monday to stress to homeowners the need to file claims as soon as possible. He said how much homeowners could get will depend on a city investigation.