BILL NUMBER:  S1671

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

 PURPOSE :

To ensure that residents are reimbursed for flood damages caused by
municipalities action or inaction failure in resolving flood crisis
problems.

 SUMMARY OF 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 a flooding crisis which
impacts the Southeast Queens community, 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 flooding crisis 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 (in New
York City) 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 parts 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 MIA Bus Depot
is flooded, (rain or shine); 108 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
dumping 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.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2015-16: S.5412 Referred to Cities.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None to the State.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.