NYC targets flood ‑hit neighborhoods in major sewer upgrade plan
In Sunset Park, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $108 million investment to replace the city's first line of defense against floods, the outdated sewer drains.
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With severe storms and flash flooding hitting New York City harder each year, the city is moving forward with long-overdue upgrades to its sewer system.
In Sunset Park, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $108 million investment to replace the city's first line of defense against floods, the outdated sewer drains.
"Our sewer system was built for the rainfall that was anticipated about more than a century ago, and as we know that rainfall is of a very different scale in this city," said Mamdani.
The goal is to modernize the system and prevent life-threatening floods that leave neighborhoods underwater.
Drenching rain and clogged catch basins are a recipe for disaster. In Sunset Park, 4th Avenue was transformed into a river after a significant rainstorm last October.
"It's affecting a lot of homes and businesses around here," said Dara Gell, who lives in Sunset Park.
Gell says if you live at the bottom of the hill near the park, you are bound to be washed out during a heavy storm or flash flooding.
"The infrastructure in the city of New York is a mess, clearly in the outer boroughs, particularly in the issues of flooding we saw so acutely during [Superstorm] Sandy, remains a real ongoing issue and it's only getting worse," said Sunset Park resident Aaron.
In July, the Department of Environmental Protection will begin work to replace more than 6,000 catch basins, starting in Queens, then moving on to Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.
An additional $20 million was recently invested in DEP to add 40 new catch basin trucks to the fleet to improve the process of cleaning clogged storm drains. The mayor says the department has improved their response time to 311 calls for clogged storm drains from eight days to three days.
"We can't control the weather, we can't control many things, but we can control how we prepare," said Lisa Garcia, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
The mayor says his administration will continue to invest $1.5M each year to improve catch basins.
DEP encourages people to call 311 to report clogged or broken storm drains in their neighborhood.
