Flooding and Historical Drainage Corridors

Mayor de Blasio announced that DEP will begin a new groundwater feasibility study in southeast Queens. As residents of the area can attest, the groundwater table has steadily risen over the last two decades and there are a number of properties that report water rising up through their basement foundations. Many property owners have installed pumping systems that discharge the water into the sewer system, thereby reducing the capacity of the drainage system and exacerbating roadway flooding. To better understand how to best address basement flooding in southeast Queens, we will be undertaking a new feasibility study for a groundwater drainage project. The study will measure how high the groundwater table has risen, how much it must be lowered in order to mitigate the basement flooding, and the feasibility of a radial collection plan.

Prior to development, much of southeast Queens was composed of wetlands and streams that drained into Jamaica Bay. In order to construct John F. Kennedy Airport and the buildings that make up the neighborhood today, the wetlands and streams were filled with soil. Today those drainage corridors still exist, however now they run beneath streets and homes. Overlaying a map of reports of basement flooding with the location of these historical drainage corridors shows there is a significant correlation. If the study shows favorable conditions, we would like to construct a radial collection system, or perforated buried pipes, along these historical areas to drain the groundwater to a local waterbody. Any plan would require approval from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.