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Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Sewage leak at Bronx MTA bus depot may be getting into groundwater: records
A sewage leak at a Bronx bus depot is worse than previously reported and possibly leaking into surrounding groundwater, the Daily News has learned. Repair work on a smaller leak, first reported by The News earlier this month, has uncovered an incursion of groundwater into the sewage system at the Gun Hill Bus Depot — likely allowing human waste to flow into the marshy ground beneath the facility for months, according to a review by The News of internal MTA records and correspondence. The MTA-owned sewage line linking the bus depot to the city-run sewer main has been in need of repair since early 2024, when the two pumps tasked with moving waste through the system failed. Four days after an overflow caused the city's Department of Environmental Protection to issue a violation on March 14, the MTA shut down water to the facility and began pumping sewage out of the system in order to replace the broken pumps and inspect the lines. The water was turned back on April 14. During the 27 days the water was off, crews pumping out the sewage line removed approximately 300,000 gallons of liquid — four times more than the roughly 75,000 gallons the system was designed to be capable of holding, sources with knowledge of the repairs told The News. An MTA spokesman confirmed that work crews had discovered 'another source of water intrusion' in the sewage lines while pumping out 'significant amounts of water' to replace the pumps. An investigation of the source of the excess water is underway, the spokesman said. It is still not clear if the groundwater leaking into the sewage system means with certainty that sewage has been leaking out. But internal correspondence reviewed by The News indicates that an MTA engineer raised concerns in early March — even before the water was turned off at the facility — that sewage was leaking into the soil around the depot. The Gun Hill Bus Depot, which sits astride Interstate 95 just south of Co-Op City, was built in 1989 atop an old dump — over the objection of community members worried about toxic waste. Prior to its use as a dump, the parcel of land now belonging to the MTA was a marsh along the now-subterranean Givan Creek, which empties into nearby Eastchester Bay. Save the Sound, a regional non-profit that monitors water quality in the Long Island Sound watershed, has given the inner portion of Eastchester Bay — which includes the part nearest the depot — an 'F' rating. Elena Colon, a scientist with the organization who has studied that section of water, said she's seen frequent algae blooms and other problems that could be linked to sewage and fertilizer runoff in the inner bay. But given that the inner bay is bounded by run-off promoting roadways and home to a handful of DEP sewage outlets, the problem is hard to pin on any one source. The state Department of Environmental Conservation and the city DEP both cited the MTA earlier this month when an apparent overflow in the depot's sewage ejection pit ran off into nearby storm drains, spilling what DEC inspectors estimated to be 50 gallons of waste into the bay. On April 2 — the day following The News' reporting on the 50-gallon spill — documents reviewed by The News show that Ramesh Ballie, the MTA's vice president of bus facility maintenance, signed off on the rental of a temporary pump to restore functionality to the sewage line before the water could be turned back on. But the sewage woes predate the violations, as does the work to repair them. Documents reviewed by The News show that plans have been in the works to replace the broken pumps at the depot for nearly a year. A work order from May 2024 states that 'both sewage ejection pumps in the outdoor sewage ejection pit at Gun Hill Depot are out of service and need to be replaced.' The work order requests the hiring of an outside firm 'to pump down the sewage ejection pit … in order to install new pumps.' A month later, in June 2024, a Google Street View car captured an image of a tanker truck from Republic Services at the location of the ejection pit at the corner of Bruner and Allerton Aves., as well as a van marked 'Genuine Plumbing and Heating.' Staten Island-based Genuine is an MTA plumbing contractor and MTA records show Republic is the firm that was hired to transport sewage off-site to a treatment plant in Newark. Despite the longstanding sewage troubles and the apparent ongoing incursion of groundwater into the system, sources at the facility said the water remained on Friday and the temporary pump remained in operation. A spokesman for the city DEP told The News an inspector visited the facility last week and found the temporary pump to be in working order with 'no sewer line blockages or manhole overflows' detected. The regulatory agency plans to revisit the depot in six weeks, when they expect permanent sewage pumps to have been installed. Bronx Councilman Kevin Riley, a Democrat representing the district that includes the Gun Hill Depot, told The News he wasn't surprised to learn the problem has persisted longer than initially thought. 'That area itself has been a problem for decades. There's a lot of dumping over there. It gets really disgusting over there when it's raining, a lot of flooding, and I don't think the MTA has done a good job taking care of the area,' Riley said. 'They own it and they have poorly, poorly taken care of that area.' Riley said he'd first received a complaint earlier this year from a constituent who said sewage leaks had been happening at the depot for more than a year. As previously reported, Riley said he'd had been briefed by the MTA in March, around the time regulators first caught wind of the sewage issues — but the councilman said he hasn't yet been given an update. With Chris Sommerfeldt
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
MTA slapped with violation for 50-gallon sewage leak at its Bronx bus depot
Dozens of gallons of raw sewage from an MTA bus depot in the Bronx have flowed into the Eastchester Bay, earning the transit agency a violation from state environmental authorities, the Daily News has learned. The putrid problem is the result of a clogged sewage line and broken sewage pumps at the Gun Hill Bus Depot in Baychester that have caused the facility's waste system to get badly backed up, according to sources and documents reviewed by The News — leaving workers to use portable toilets and teams at a nearby Little League Baseball field to smell the spilled muck. During a recent visit to the site of the leak — a half-block stretch of Bruner Ave. that abuts onto the depot's parking lot as well as several MTA-owned Little League Baseball fields — The News observed several large puddles and a rank sewage smell. The foul situation drew the attention of state and city regulators last month when a clogged sewage line coming from the transit facility caused an overflow that dumped into the nearby storm drain system, emptying out into the Eastchester Bay, according to a state Department of Environmental Conservation violation issued to the MTA last week and reviewed by The News. The violation says some 50 gallons of raw sewage in total pumped into the water. 'The overflow originated from an eight-inch Transit Authority sanitary manhole, clogged by rags and grease,' the violation notice reads. The sewage then 'entered a nearby stormwater catch basin leading to the bay,' it continues. A source with knowledge of the Gun Hill facility said the sewer sorrows date back more than a year, when the pumps tasked with moving human waste out of the facility's ejector pit and into the city's larger sewage network broke down in February 2024. An MTA spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that crews were continuing to work on repairs to the pumps and sewer pipes, and that water has been shut off to the facility and portable toilets have been brought to the site. 'The MTA continues to work with its vendors to address the issues at the Gun Hill Bus Depot,' MTA spokeswoman Kayla Shults said. 'There is no impact to bus operations.' A spokesman for the state DEC said the MTA had begun using vacuum trucks to bypass the broken pipes and clear out the sewage still in the system — which a transit source estimated amounted to thousands of gallons of human waste. 'Currently, the MTA is using vacuum trucks to transport the sewage from the [depot] buildings to the New York City sewer to eliminate the possibility of any additional sewage bypassing,' DEC spokesman John Salka wrote in a statement on Tuesday. Salka added the MTA 'is exploring options for continued cleanup operations.' A wide trench could be seen along the edge of the property Monday, following the fence that separates the depot's parking lot from the adjacent baseball fields. Sources said MTA crews were working on repairs to the clogged sewage line there, as well as at another covered hole directly next to the entrance of the baseball field. An official with Astor Little League, which uses the fields, told a reporter that any leak had not affected the league or its plans to open its baseball season this month. But while the trench appeared dry when seen by The News on Monday, a sour whiff of sewage could still be detected from behind home plate of the closest baseball field. Gun Hill Depot, which sits alongside Interstate 95, is no stranger to toxic concerns — it was built in 1989 on the site of an old dump over community opposition to the plan. Asked about the spill, City Council member Kevin Riley (D-Bronx) said the MTA briefed him on it two weeks ago after a constituent brought it to his attention. 'The sewage is kind of all over the place,' he said. Riley said he was concerned the slop could muck up the nearby Little League field with the spring season coming up. 'We don't want this to be an issue for [the league], so we're going to be pushing the MTA to expedite to resolve this issue,' he said.
