City Completes Sewer Upgrade on Northern Boulevard

The city has completed a massive project that will prevent flooding in northeast Queens and filter overflow from Douglaston’s sewers following rainstorms, the Department of Environmental Protection’s commissioner said.

The $130 million project, which encompasses 16 acres along Northern Boulevard, includes a facility that will collect up to five million gallons of combined sewage that was previously discharged into Alley Creek and Little Neck Bay during storms.

“The completion of the Alley Creek combined sewer overflow facility is a major step forward in our efforts to improve harbor water quality, especially in northeast Queens,” DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway said.

The project’s first phase was completed in 2007 as a means to halt flooding in Bayside Hills. The second phase was located at the site of an old pumping station near Douglaston’s Alley Pond Environmental Center.

Sewer overflow and storm water will be held in a large tank at the site before being filtered and channeled back to a water treatment plant.

The project will decrease contamination levels in Douglaston and Bayside as well as reduce the volume of combined sewer overflow that is annually dumped into Alley Creek from 246 million gallons to 112 million gallons, Holloway said.

Other water quality improvements at the site will include increased dissolved oxygen concentrations and decreased coliform levels as well as fewer floatables and solids within the creek and Little Neck Bay.

The facility includes a concrete two-barrel sewer, storage tanks and an outfall structure.

Following a storm, an automated valve opens that will allow combined sewage to flow to the old Douglaston Pumping Station before being pumped to the Tallman Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The Tallman Island plant has the capacity to treat more than 80 million gallons of wastewater each day.

The DEP also completed a $20 million restoration of the northern portion of Alley Pond Park during the course of the project, Holloway said.

Upgrades included the restoration of 16 acres of wetlands and the reintroduction of local plant life.

Elected officials representing northeast Queens at the city and state level said the long-awaited project would help stabilize the local environment.

“[It] will help relieve the reoccurring flooding problems that have plagued the area for years,” state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside said.

Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, said the project was “sorely needed.”

“The facility is a welcome step toward the stabilization of the creek, wetlands and bay,” he said.

The DEP project has caused some structural damage to the Alley Pond Environmental Center’s walls and floors. Irene Scheid, director of the center, said a $7 million renovation would fix the damage as well as upgrade Alley Pond’s existing building and add 5,000 square feet of space.