Hundreds left without water after main break near Queensbridge
/
Department of Environmental Protection crews work to repair a water main break on Vernon Boulevard that left hundreds of Queensbridge Houses residents without water on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
Hundreds of residents inside the Queensbridge Houses awoke Tuesday morning to find their taps dry, their toilets not running and the street outside their buildings flooded with the water they didn’t have access to.
A water main break along Vernon Boulevard between 41st Avenue and Queens Plaza South left 450 apartment units within the Queensbridge Houses without water Tuesday morning, according to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. In response to the break, DEP shut down several water mains along the route in an effort to stop and identify the source of the leak, according to the agency.
The break happened around 2 a.m., flooding several streets, including Vernon Boulevard, and damaging cars parked out alongside them. A number of residential units also saw flooding, residents say.
The main break was fixed around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a DEP spokesperson. The flooded streets had mostly dried by the afternoon, leaving behind several large puddles and large patches of mud.
With temperatures reaching a high of 78 degrees Tuesday, residents were steaming with frustration over what has now become a repeat issue. A water main break along Vernon Boulevard left Queensbridge Houses residents without water for several hours on Jan. 28, 2021.
DEP officials could not confirm whether or not Tuesday’s break happened in the same location because the leak had yet to be identified.
“There are several mains serving this neighborhood and we don’t know which is the source of this leak just yet – so premature to know if [it is the ] same main that leaked in [the] past,” a DEP spokesperson said.
Yvone T., a Queensbridge resident, works overnight. She came back home Tuesday morning to learn that she was without water. However, despite being frustrated, she said she saw no point in getting too upset.
“I can’t afford to raise my blood pressure over something I have no control over,” she said. “Eventually the water will come back on – I guess, I’ll bathe then.”
But others were slightly more upset.
“It’s frustrating for it to happen back-to-back like that,” said Donna Colon, who was with water Tuesday but lost it in the main break last year. “That means whoever was down there last time just put a Band-Aid on it.”
“Who’s to say it’s not going to happen again?” she added.
Water filling stations were set up in Queensbridge Houses after a water main break left 450 units without water on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Elaine Walker, a longtime Queensbridge resident, was sitting on a bench near 10th Street Tuesday, watching her neighbors carry buckets and bottles filled with water from one of several temporary water filling stations set up by both the DEP and NYCHA. The stations were connected to fire hydrants on 10th Street and 41st Avenue.
Though she was unaffected by both outages, Walker said she views the water main break as a part of the larger problem of disinvestment in public housing throughout New York City and in Queensbridge, the largest public housing community in the country.
Across from where she sat, the front door of one of the complex’s buildings was without a door handle. She said it had been that way for months. In her own unit, Walker said an asbestos issue hadn’t been taken care of despite making a complaint around two months ago.
“It's just ridiculous,” Walker said. “Maintenance used to be much faster and [the grounds were] well kept, not like now – horrible.”
Vernon Boulevard was covered in mud patches following flooding caused by an early morning water main break on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
A number of elected officials expressed outrage over the outage and called on the city to take more of a proactive approach to maintaining NYCHA complexes.
“We must work quickly to understand the damage caused by this water main break on the Queensbridge Houses and not let it pile up on the already billions of dollars of repairs that NYCHA is already delinquent on,” City Councilmember Julie Won said in a statement to the Eagle. “Residents in my district suffer from constant infrastructure failures, from the heat and hot water outages that plagued Woodside houses last winter, to ongoing issues with mold, broken windows and appliances, and the general disrepair of the buildings that so many of my constituents deal with every day."
"We have been working since our office opened to hold NYCHA accountable for years of negligence and we will continue to fight,” she added.
State Senator Michael Gianaris said, “we must work on modern solutions to fix our water infrastructure, so we aren't playing catch up to more and more water main breaks.”
Queensbridge residents who experienced damage to their property are being encouraged to file a claim form with the New York City Comptroller’s office at comptroller.nyc.gov. Additionally, Won’s office is accepting complaints from residents – her office can be reached at 718-383-9566 or by email at district26@gmail.com.
