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Raw Sewage Reportedly Floods Entrance to Lower East Side Housing Project

By DNAinfo Staff on November 1, 2010 10:45am

A spokesman for NYCHA claimed that the flooding has only happened twice, but residents say it's been happening almost everyday for about a year, NY1 reported.
A spokesman for NYCHA claimed that the flooding has only happened twice, but residents say it's been happening almost everyday for about a year, NY1 reported.
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DNAinfo/Olivia Scheck

By Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A stream of raw sewage flooded the entrance to a Lower East Side public housing project, creating a welcome mat that is anything but inviting, NY1 reported.

Tenants at 70 Baruch Drive told the TV network that a broken pipe has been causing the sewage to spew onto the path that leads to their front door almost everyday for nearly a year, leaving a stream of human excrement and soggy toilet paper.

"It's embarrassing. You can't bring people to your neighborhood because they see this and are like, 'What kind of neighborhood are you living in?'" resident Morris Spitzer told the news station.

Maintenance men for the New York City Housing Authority come by whenever the pipe erupts to hose the flood onto the curb but it's not long before the problem returns, tenants explained to NY1.

The plumbing problems have also popped up inside residents' homes, with toilet water reportedly shooting into the air from inside the toilet bowls.

Sheila Stainback, a spokesperson for the NYCHA, denied that the problem is as serious as residents' say, claiming that there have been only two instances of sewage flooding onto the sidewalk, according to NY1.