Study Queens Flooding Issues

Existing law

New York City is not directed under existing law to perform such an analysis.

Justification

For one hundred years, from 1897 to 1996, Southwest Queens, NYC received its drinking water from a private company, Jamaica Water Supply Co. (JWS). That company had 69 wells from which it pumped 60 million gallons of water per day from underground. Besides providing water for this community, this pumping extracted water from the ground and kept the standing water level at manageable levels. In 1996, New York City purchased JWS and stopped pumping water from these wells. The water left underground began rising at an alarming level. In testimony before a NY City Council committee in September 2007, the Department of Environ- mental Preservation Commissioner Emily Lloyd stated that the ground water level in Jamaica, Queens had risen 35 feet since pumping of the wells was discontinued in 1996. This rising level was flooding homes and backing up in the existing sewer and hindering their effectiveness. Ms. Lloyd stated that resolving the ground water' problem was "as imperative as continuing to install sewers in Southeast Queens." DEP officials told Southeast Queens residents in the early 2000's they would face severe flooding if this water was not pumped out of the ground.

Those rising water levels are now flooding large parts of Southern Queens, where the standing water level is now higher than many basements or lower level offices. As a result York College (CUNY) pumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per' day from its lower levels; the Parsons Blvd. subway gets flooded; the Jamaica MTA Bus Depot gets flood- ed (rain or shine); PS37, Springfield Gardens, The Allen Senior Housing Complex, Carter Community Church, Queens Bridge Home and other locations are running electric pumps in their basements 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get rid of the water constantly invading their premises. This is in addition to hundreds of homes and businesses throughout Southeast Queens that are forced to run electric pumps to remove basement flooding and have had their home or businesses literally ruined by the rising water levels. In the summer of 2011, NYC DEP awarded a contract to begin pumping water from the JWS wells in 2018. At that time NYC must shut down the Delaware Water Tunnel which supplies a large share of New York City's water. NYC considers this well water to be part of their plan to replace the water supplied by the Delaware system. However, NYC has refused to bring any of these wells on line earlier, even though they are fully aware of the flood damage throughout South Queens. They also know that pumping or extracting the ground water is the key to reducing the water level and easing the flooding plaguing the area.

Additionally, NYC sued Exxon-Mobil on the grounds that their operations in Southeast Queens had damaged the ground water in the area. NYC won a judgment for $104 million, which is being appealed by Exxon. Five other oil companies sued by NYC because of damage to the ground water in Southeast Queens settled with the city for an additional $15 million. The community's position is that NYC was awarded this money based on damage to the Southeast Queens water supply and the money should be used to resolve the problem that this water is now creating for the residents and businesses in Southeast Queens.

Legislative history

02/17/15 REFERRED TO CITIES 05/19/15 1ST REPORT CAL.878 05/20/15 2ND REPORT CAL. 05/27/15 ADVANCED TO THIRD READING 06/25/15 COMMITTED TO RULES 01/06/16 REFERRED TO CITIES 01/15/16 AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO CITIES 01/15/16 PRINT NUMBER 3765A

Fiscal implications

De minimus

Local fiscal implications

None

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.