City Commits To Queens Sewer Fixes On Hurricane Ida Anniversary

QUEENS, NY — Mayor Eric Adams came to South Ozone Park Thursday to hold a moment of silence for 13 people killed during Hurricane Ida on the first anniversary of the storm.

Adams then promised to ramp up flood protections across the city, and in Queens especially, that include rain gardens, flood sensor technology, blue sewer systems and retention ponds.

“This is real and there is no place for denial,” Adams said of climate change. “We have to get stuff done.”

For the past nine months, the mayor has been working with people on all levels of government to protect the city from a future Ida-level storm, Adams said.

Those efforts include the installation of 2,300 new rain gardens — depressed areas that help rain soak into the ground and prevent sewer system overloads— throughout the city, bringing the total number to 11,000, Adams announced.

Another 1,000 rain gardens will be installed before the year comes to a close with each able to hold 2,500 gallons of water, the mayor said.

“These rain gardens are more than just plantings,” said the mayor. “They are a strong defense against flash flooding.”

Other flood mitigation tactics include a bluebelt drainage system and flood sensors, which will help determine whether travel bans and road closures are necessary during future storms, the mayor added.

New York officials have also reached out the city of Copenhagen to learn more about retention ponds and plans to introduce one to NYCHA South Jamaica’s basketball courts, officials said.

“We must confront the climate crisis head on," said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. "Especially in historically underserved neighborhoods."

City officials delivered this announcement on the corner of 135th Avenue and 127th Street — an area which saw 3.75 inches of rain per hour when Ida hit New York City, according to city Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala.

Despite 150,000 catch basins and 7,500 miles of sewers across the city, the Big Apple’s 100-year-old sewage system is capable of handling only 1.75 inches of rain per hour, Aggarwala said.

The rainfall was as high as 5 inches in some parts of the city, reported Eyewitness News last year.

“It was the heaviest rainfall in our recorded history,” Adams said. “It flooded our streets, subways and basements in our city … For the first time in my life I experienced the [Brooklyn Bridge] had to close down because of flooding.”

Aggarwala also noted most regions of Southeast Queens don’t have storm sewers.

“We are making progress now," Aggarwala said. "But you are going to see more of it.”

This summer, the city implemented a new schedule for catch basin cleaning and it will explore technology that could predict where sinkholes and collapses might occur, officials said.

The MTA is also working with New York to identify causes of flooding in specific subway stations and it is deepening its commitment to providing sewers to Southeast Queens.

“This is more than just infrastructure, this is how we are going to protect our city from rising sea levels and stronger storms,” said Adams. “This is how we can create good jobs. This is also about using one solution to address a multitude of problems. "