A pair of tiny southeastern Queens neighborhoods have finally been linked to the city's sewer system, meaning the water that goes down residents' drains will no longer be dumped directly into a creek that terminates in Jamaica Bay. "When I first moved here, they told me, 'You're all getting sewers soon,'" said Lenny Zamiello, 88, a retired carpet and linoleum installer. "That was 60 years ago."
According to the Times, the city has finished a $37.5 million sewer construction project that will add the neighborhoods of Meadowmere and Warnerville to the grid. The project is "part of a citywide trend to improve public health and the state of Jamaica Bay," said Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway.
But it's not all good news according to residents of the oft-flooded communities. The city informed homeowners in August that they must now pay plumbers to connect their homes to the sewer system—and that job has been quoted at prices as high as $10,000. "They've been telling us for 50 years that sewers were coming and all of a sudden, we get told we have to find 10 grand to hook up to it," said George Argo, who owns a local boatyard.
