South Shore resident battles water surging up from below ground

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A South Shore resident woke up to rushing water bubbling up from below ground through what appeared to be a valve box in the street on the morning of Memorial Day.

Upon seeing the spurting water outside of his house on Edgegrove Avenue, Prince’s Bay resident Adam Prue began to call every office and agency he could think of — from the Department of Environmental Protection to the newly inducted South Shore City Councilmember Frank Morano.

Two hours after his initial call, Prue said the DEP arrived on the scene where they “disable[d] the fire hydrant and slow[ed] the water down a little bit.”

When Prue spoke with the DEP members, he said they pointed the finger to the fire department as the party responsible for fixing the mysterious water.

The next day, May 27, Prue said the water got “worse again.”

“I call 311 and they tell me the DEP has 16 days to respond,” Prue explained. “Think about how much water would be flowing out every single day for 16 days and the damage it could do to my house and my neighbors if it was not addressed for 16 days.”

Prue alleges that his basement suffered new water damage due to the leaking water below ground, claiming, “It is obviously coming from the foundation/street because there are no water marks on the walls.”

He eventually got the fire department to come down to the block, just a stone’s throw away from Bloomingdale Park. According to Prue, he said that the fire department pointed the finger back to the DEP.

Come May 28, Prue said the water began to geyser “as high as 5 feet” in the air. He feared that the surging water would result in an accident on Bloomingdale Road — and with no working fire hydrant available.

“I call every city agency, email every news station and literally beg for help fearing my house will sustain serious damage from three days of water gushing out of the street,” said Prue.

Thursday morning, DEP came back to investigate. Prue said that the DEP fixed the fire hydrant and that they would return sometime in the next week.

An Advance/SILive.com reporter visited the scene Thursday afternoon and found that the water was still bubbling up from what appeared to be a valve box with the letters DWS embossed on the metal.

“Upon learning about this issue from a constituent, my office reached out to the DEP. They have informed us they will investigate the cause of the issue and will be letting us know of their findings,” Morano said.

When the Advance/SILive.com reached out to the DEP, a spokesperson said that teams discovered a leaking hydrant on Edgegrove Avenue and repaired the issue in a limited way. The spokesperson said that the DEP will return over the weekend to excavate the area in order to fully repair the leak.