Heavy rain from this week\u2019s nor\u2019easter left storm drains across the Bronx clogged with debris \u2014 but the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection is hard at work clearing them.<\/p>\n
At first glance, it may look like a giant claw machine \u2014 but the only prize here is a bed of dirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little bit of leaves and debris, you know from the water washing from the storm,\u201d said Duron Alexander, who has decades of experience cleaning catch basins across the Bronx.<\/p>\n
Rain, snow or shine, Alexander checks about 15 drains a day. But it\u2019s not always just dirt and leaves his clam shell is catching.<\/p>\n
\u201cPieces of wood, a lot of bottles, occasional cellphones \u2014 you know things like that,” he said. “People lose them and it washes into the basin.”<\/p>\n
DEP maintains more than 150,000 catch basins citywide, which play a key role in filtering stormwater and preventing flooding. Each drain is cleaned at least once every three years, but Alexander says after this week\u2019s storm, he\u2019s been tackling multiple basins all by himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepending on how dirty the basin is, it could [take] a half hour, 45 minutes \u2014 it could be as [long] as an hour,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the basin is really full it could slow up the function, but the basin usually takes water and we\u2019re always on top of it so it\u2019s usually good.”<\/p>\n
DEP is also asking for the public\u2019s help through its Adopt-a-Catch Basin program. Participants can receive free shovels or brooms to sweep debris off the grates and help keep their neighborhoods flood-free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heavy rain from this week\u2019s nor\u2019easter left storm drains across the Bronx clogged with debris \u2014 but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,4663,9,24,63,4664,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-4526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-department-of-environmental-protection","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-storm-drain","14":"tag-the-bronx","15":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","16":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}