MTA’s $1.5M ‘pump fake’
Anti-flood gear idles
MTA officials spent $1.5 million of post-Sandy federal grant money on flood-mitigation pumps that have never once been used, according to a report — including at least two that sat idle at bus depots that suffered significant damage from Aug. 31 flash flooding due to Hurricane Ida.
The 12 pump trucks bought with federal grant money in 2017 and delivered in 2018 have “not been maintained as required to keep them operational,” according to a report by MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny’s office, which was obtained by The Post.
Bus officials used a federal grant to buy the pumps for depots that experienced significant flooding during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 — yet IG investigators found workers have never been taught to use them, according to the report. Training is currently scheduled for the end of this year, the report said.
“An inability to operate the pumps when needed effectively nullifies the reason for buying the pumps in the first place,” the report said. “According to depot staff responsible for operating the pumps should a flooding condition occur, they had not been trained on pump operation – nor had they even seen a pump being operated. This inexplicable lack of instruction not only leaves critical facilities at risk of flooding.”
Video obtained by The Post from Casey Stengel Depot in Queens showed the facility’s parking lot inundated with about 1 to 2 feet of water as drivers attempted to wade their cars through the sludge.
Another facility, Castleton Depot on Staten Island, saw 4 feet of flooding from Hurricane Ida that damaged 28 buses — 12 percent of the depot — and cost the MTA at least $8 million. Video posted by workers on YouTube showed the inside of the depot filled with brown sewer water and workers standing on barrels to avoid it.
Both MTA bus locations had a pump truck on site, sources said.
“It could have pumped it out of vital areas,” said one bus source.
A “majority” of the buses are able to be repaired, an MTA spokesman said. Transit officials do not believe deploying the pump trucks would have averted flooding at either depot.