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NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Department of March 15, 2000 Environmental Protection Honorable Carolyn Maloney, Honorable Roy. Goodman 59-17 lunctlon Boulevard Congresswoman State Senator Corona, New York 11368-5107 Honorable Olga Mendez Honorable Alexander Grannis State Senator„ State Assembly Member

Joel A. Miele Sr., P.E. Honorable John Ra'vitz Honorable A. Gifford Miller Commissioner State Assembly Member City Council Member

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing in response to your joint letter of January 24, 2000, and Council Member Miller's letter of February 16, 2000; both of which address mosquito infestation on East 91st Street.

DEP's,contractor has uncovered large colonies of mosquitoes while repairing,two broken sewer connections on East 91st Street. These broken - connections were recently discovered by a DEP Field Operations crew working with a remote-controlled camera that was inside the sewer. DEP issued orders to the building owners to repair the house connection. Although the building owners initially delayed making the repairs, persistent DEP employees persuaded the building owners that failure to repair the connections immediately was in their, and the City's best interest. As related to our field staff, when the contractor hired by the building owners excavated to make the repair they found swarms of mosquitoes that were living in soil "pockets" created by the sewage that escaped via the breaks in the house connections. We are very hopeful that elimination of the mosquito breeding grounds created by the broken connections will greatly reduce or even eliminate the mosquito problem.

If the outrage referred to in your January 29, 2000 letter is directed at DEP, I believe it is inappropriate. DEP has inspected private house connections on two blocks of East 91st, flushed the sewers with chlorine, replaced a section of the sewer, relined the remainder of the sewer, and asked an entomologist to advise us. We inspected the bakery in the area to minimize the contribution waste yeast and flour from that site might make to mosquito infestation. Finally, we notified the contractor working at the gutted structure at 91st Street and First Avenue that stagnant water in their connection could be a breeding area for mosquitoes. In short, I am satisfied that my staff has diligently responded to this problem of insect control. As noted earlier, my staff is hopeful that by compelling two building owners to repair their house connections we will be eliminating two significant sources of infestation. If the +may, CnY problem persists, we will, of course continue our efforts. DFf~e),ye

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NYC-WTC 000137606