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Sewer project in Flushing suffers additional setback

By Alexander Dworkowitz

Ash was found in the tons of soil contaminated with petroleum along the Whitestone Expressway, a discovery that will further delay a sewer project in the area, a city official said.

In another setback, the contamination was determined to be more extensive than previously thought, running the entire length of the five-block project, said John Spavins, a spokesman for the city Department of Design and Construction.

“It’s like Murphy’s Law — anything that can go bad will,” Spavins said.

At this point 50 truckloads of soil mixed with ash and contaminated with petroleum sit along Higgins Street and the northbound Whitestone Expressway Service Road in an industrial area of Flushing. Warehouses and a shopping center front the stretch of the Whitestone Expressway where the soil was found.

The contamination was discovered more than a month ago after the city began work on its $4.2 million project to install storm and sanitary sewers on Higgins Street and the service road from Higgins Street to Farrington Street.

The city had finished a similar project to install sewers on Linden Place and the service road from Linden Place to 25th Road at the end of last year.

Initially, the city had hoped it could dump the soil at a site in New Jersey.

But the site does not accept soil mixed with petroleum and ash, forcing the city to look elsewhere.

Until an adequate dump is found, the city has no idea how long the soil will have to sit there nor how much the setback will cost.

The area was a landfill, and the city often used ash for landfills, Spavins said.

City records indicate the area was used as a garbage dump in the 1930s, a source said, although the city could not confirm that information.

The city is investigating where the petroleum spill originated.

Spavins said the soil sitting on the street in containers is not a health hazard.

Kent Udell, an environmental engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said that in hot weather the soil could present an “explosion hazard,” but he was not too concerned about an imminent threat to safety.

“I don’t think you need to act very quickly at all,” he said, “not during the winter months.”

While the soil may not be a danger, local businesses have found it an inconvenience.

Seoul Shik Poom Inc., a Korean food product import business, has about 10 containers full of soil sitting in front of its warehouse and offices at 31-85 Whitestone Expressway

Tony Choi, the purchase manager for the company, said the company’s vehicles struggle to get onto the premises because the containers are so near its driveways.

“We are having a difficulty getting our trucks in and out,” he said. “If they would remove the containers, we would appreciate it.”

Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7, wondered why the city had not found petroleum in its initial testing of the area.

“If they did the test borings, they should have come up with the contaminants,” she said. “Something should have been done to remediate that problem prior to the start of construction.”

Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, a firm in Ithaca, N.Y. that maintains a database on polluted areas, said Higgins Street and the stretch of the service road were known to be polluted.

“If they would have checked, they would have seen the issue,” he said. “This was absolutely classic.”

Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.