BILL NUMBER:S4035

TITLE OF BILL:  An act relating to requiring certain municipalities to
mitigate  certain property damage caused by environmental issues which
are caused by acts or omissions of such municipality

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

In a city with  a  population  of  one  million  or  more,  where  the
municipality  or  its  departments  by  acts of omission or commission
either creates or greatly contributes to an environmental crisis which
impacts a sizable segment of its citizens,  creating  property  damage
and  threatening residents' health, and where such municipality or its
departments either  owns  or  controls  the  infrastructure  that  can
substantially  mitigate  this  environmental issue and bring relief to
those residents, then such municipality shall be required and directed
to utilize that infrastructure  to  provide  a  clear,  objective  and
quantifiable plan to obtain relief in a timely manner.

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 is 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.
This  water  left  underground  began  rising at an alarming level, In
testimony before a NY City Council committee in  September  2007,  the
Department  of  Environmental  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  sewers,
hindering  their  effectiveness.  She 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, and DEP began only to quietly discontinue it
because it was "too expensive".

That rising water level is now flooding large part 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 is flooded; the Jamaica MTA Bus Depot is flooded,
(rain or shine); 188 Jamaica, 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. One resident
of St. Albans literally refuses to enter her  basement  for  the  last
year  due  to  the water damage and mold spores the size of golf balls


that have grown on her walls due to constant water presence. She  runs
two electric pumps in her basement, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In  the  Summer  of  2011, NYC DEP awarded a contract to begin pumping
water from the JWS wells in 2018, when NYC must shut down the Delaware
Water Tunnel that supplies a large share of New York City's water, and
they consider this well water to be part of their plan to replace  the
water  supplied  by the Delaware system. However, they have refused to
bring any of these wells on line earlier, even though they  are  fully
aware  of the flood damage throughout South Queens, and they 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. They 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  should be used to resolve the problem that this water is
now creating for the residents and businesses in Southeast Queens.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.