W12thRd: Significant End of Street Ponding of Water will Result in Severe Icing Conditions Tonight [UPDATE #2]

UPDATED Monday, 2/22/2015 at 8:00 p.m.

No response from DEP and Sanitation staff did little more than spread road salt on the street as they claim removing ponded water and ice dams and such is not in their purview.

That's not quite true......!

Interestingly enough, exactly 2 years ago today, W12th Road had a similar problem with ponded water from an ice dam and Sanitation did, in fact, respond to the problem and breached the packed snow and ice at the end of the block to allow the water to drain from the street prior to freezing.

As an aside, DEP's reaction to our requests for assistance with the 2011 problem was also one of a non-response.

What follows are the original postings from February of 2012.

Originally posted February 2, 2011

There is a 13 foot mound of snow located at the bay end of West 12th Road in Broad Channel.

The snow was deposited there by sanitation workers who plowed our street after the recent snow storms.

From what I have been able to ascertain, the D.E.P. has precluded sanitation from the past practice of dumping this plowed snow into Jamaica Bay for environmental reasons.  I guess D.E.P.'s logic is that whatever pollutants may be present in this snow pile will somehow disappear by the time it is washed away by rain or melts in the spring, at which time it will all...wait for it....drain into Jamaica Bay!

Consequently, the snow has now packed down and frozen over forming an "ice dam" which precludes run off from the street from draining out into the bay.

The run off, consisting of melting snow, ice and rain, is now backing up West 12th Road and as of 10:15 a.m. this morning, extends a quarter of the way up the block and is still rising!

This extensive amount of ponded run off will almost certainly freeze solid later tonight when the local temperature rapidly drops back in to the mid 20's!

We fully understand and appreciate the difficulties faced by our terrific sanitation workers in addressing the extensive amount of snowfall we have recently experienced but, nevertheless, if snow is to be dumped at the bay end of West 12th Road, a cut out should be provided to alow for sufficient run off to prevent this type of dangerous sitation from happening.

We have called and reported this condition to the City's "311" service [Service Request # 185190305] and they have referred this matter to the City's D.E.P.

We have also contacted several other city officials in an effort to expedite corrective action in this regard.

Additionally, we have contacted NY1 and other media sources to apprise them of this situation.

We'll keep you updated....

The Sanitation Department arrived on the scene at approximately 12:20 pm and.....

...at 1:20 pm, the cut out was completed and the bathtub that was West 12th Road  drained out almost immediately!

Thanks guys!

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UPDATED Monday, 2/2/2015 at 1:30 pm

Thanks to a quick follow up to our original post below by staff from Assemblyman Goldfeder's Office, at 1:30 p.m. a Department of Sanitation truck backed down West 12th Road spreading road salt  throughout the ponded water and ice at the end of the street.  

Although the response by Sanitation was quick and much appreciated it was also totally ineffective. Even though the Sanitation Salt truck had a plow affixed to its front end it was never utilized to clear the end of street blockage.

The snow pack at the end of the block (as a result of plowing over the past several snowstorms) has to be breached in order to allow a run off into the bay to avoid this whole area from turning into an ice skating rink this evening.

DEP is presently being contacted to ascertain the feasibility of pumping out the ponding water prior to a freeze over tonight.

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Original Post: Monday 2/2/2015 at Noon

The plowed, packed snow at the end of West 12th Road has frozen and effectively formed an "ice dam" which has now prevented any melt-water from this morning's transition from snow to heavy rain from draining into the bay resulting in significant ponding of water and ice 

at the end of West 12th Road.

This ponded water will transition into a dangerous icing condition later this afternoon when the temperature falls back well below freezing with an overnight low of 16 degrees.

I am in the process of contacting the conractors, Saniation, DEP, etc., to ascertain who can assist in
addressing this issue before it freezes over this evening.