Scarborough, Sanders Applaud New York Rising Committee Approval of Flood Relief Study

Assemblyman William Scarborough and Senator James Sanders, Jr. congratulated the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Planning Committee for the inclusion of a radical collection flood relief study in its recommendation for funding under the Idlewild Watershed Communities program. The study will be part of the $6 million allocated by the committee for community reconstruction and flood mitigation strategies as a result of tropical storm sandy.

The Radical Collection System project was presented to the committee as a strategy to reduce the groundwater flooding that has plagued residents of southeast queens for years.  The presentation was done by the Douglas Greeley, a former deputy commissioner with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) currently with the engineering firm Acadia’s, Inc., and was strongly supported by Assemblyman Scarborough and Senator Sanders.

The radical collection system is similar to the “daylighting” natural water techniques currently used by the DEP to regulate storm water flow and create “green” projects.  This project would use engineering technology to re-create the natural streams that flowed into larger bodies of water throughout Southeast Queens prior to large-scale development of the area.

Re-creating these water patterns would allow groundwater to flow into bodies of water such as Twin Ponds and Springfield Lake, thereby reducing the high water table that causes much of the flooding in our community.  Targeted communities on the N.Y. Rising include Rosedale, Springfield Gardens and Brookville, but this study is expected to show that this technique can be used to reduce groundwater flooding throughout Southeast queens.

" I applaud the planning committee for approving this important study.  I believe this technology can be a major tool in reducing flooding in our community and will be a strong flood mitigation initiative in the event of future storms such as Sandy” said Assemblyman Scarborough.

“This is what working together looks like,” Senator Sanders said. “We took an age old problem and brought the synergy of senate leaders, assembly leaders and community leaders to start working towards a solution. I want to applaud Assemblyman Scarborough and his staff, who have been working on this issue for over a decade, and without whom we would not be where we are today. The people of Southeast Queens can be assured that there is a light at the end of this tunnel. We believe this study will be a viable method to get things started, but it will be beholden upon us to hold the city and state’s feet to the fire to find a permanent solution to our community’s flooding problem.”