DEP Completes Northeast Queens Sewer Cleaning Project

DEP Completes Northeast Queens Sewer Cleaning Project The city's Department of Environmental Protection has completed cleaning large sewers across northeast Queens with new state-of-the-art equipment in an effort to halt combined sewer overflowing into Little Neck Bay and Flushing Bay. "This is a big step in the right direction," he said. That project, which cost $130 million, encompassed 16 acres along Northern Boulevard, including a facility that can collect up to five million gallons of combined sewage that was previously discharged into Alley Creek and Little Neck Bay during storms. The DEP's Tallman Island sewer system consists of three interceptor sewers at College Point, Whitestone and Flushing that cover 14. The agency took three months to clean northeast Queens with its new Vactor trucks, sending 65 million gallons of combined sewer overflow to the treatment plant per day. "This cost-effective and efficient solution to one of the city's longest-standing water quality challenges will maximize the the necessity of existing infrastructure without having to pay for costly new capital projects," Strickland said. Jerry Iannece, Community Board 11's chairman, said he was pleased that the city was stepping up initiatives to keep northeast Queens's sewers clean. The new equipment may not be the first effort in recent years to keep northeast Queens's sewers clean. The trucks, that are diesel-powered, use a 30-foot hose to vacuum debris from sewers that are accessed through manholes. The new equipment will allow to get more sewer capacity that could reduce up to 45 million gallons of combined sewer overflow, which is a mixture of storm and waste water, per year in Little Neck Bay and Flushing Bay. In the long run, it's better for everbody. DEP Completes Northeast Queens Sewer Cleaning Project Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 30/03/2012