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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Niki Cross, Staff Attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, on Sewer Backups and Flooding in Queens
3:46:45
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Niki Cross, representing New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, testified about the disproportionate impact of sewer backups and flooding on historically underinvested communities in Queens. She highlighted the need for faster action from DEP on promised infrastructure projects and greater transparency in project timelines.
- Cross cited statistics showing Queens residents made nearly six times as many sewer backup complaints as Manhattan in 2022.
- She described a specific case in South Jamaica where residents have been paying $10,000 annually for decades to maintain a failing private sewer line.
- Cross criticized DEP for delays and lack of communication on a promised public sewer line project, initially slated for 2026-2027 but now pushed to fiscal year 2029.
Niki Cross
3:46:45
Thanks very much.
3:46:46
I'm Nikki Cross, staff attorney for the environmental justice program at NILPI, New York lawyers for the public interest.
3:46:53
Our EJ program works on a range of community driven priorities, but the focus of my testimony is on sewer backups and flooding in Queens.
3:47:02
Communities in which the city has historically invested less money and resources, which tend to be black, brown, and low income communities, disproportionately bear the burdens of flooding and sewage backups.
3:47:15
For example, residents in Queens, the city's most racially diverse borough, made over 4,000 backup complaints involving private sewer systems to DEP in 2022 alone.
3:47:27
That's nearly six times as many as Manhattan.
3:47:31
Many in Queens are underwater.
3:47:33
Sewer backups make residents' environments unsafe, financially unstable, unhealthy, and inhumane.
3:47:41
We represent clients in South Jamaica, a historically redlined and unjustly disinvested area of Queens.
3:47:50
There, a community of 20 homes is connected on a failing shared private sewer line requiring frequent repair and maintenance, costing the community approximately $10,000 a year for decades.
3:48:03
After years of advocacy by those impacted, DEP committed to constructing a public sewer line within, quote, three or four years during an August 2023 meeting with the homeowners and their elected leaders, including, council member Natasha Williams.
3:48:21
We, the residents, and the representatives have been trying for many months to get updates on the timeline of the project with little to no response from DEP.
3:48:32
This has left the residents unable to accurately plan for how much to invest in maintaining their private line and also having to keep these repairs going for years.
3:48:43
Despite its promise to complete the project by 2026 or '27, we recently received word from VP Richard's office intends to finish the project by fiscal year twenty twenty nine.
3:48:55
That's totally unacceptable.
3:48:59
As DEP writes in its preliminary budget report, and I'll wrap shortly, It's facing growing budget risks as climate change drives more extreme weather events.
3:49:10
And as you mentioned, Chair Ressler, everyone wants their projects fixed ASAP.
3:49:16
But communities who are least able to advocate and have the least time and resources to do so simultaneously need these projects the most and the fastest.
3:49:27
And we need to ensure that DEP is transparently committing these projects and doing so on time.
3:49:33
Thank you.