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Broken 20-Year-Old Hydrant Locks Causing Summerlong Floods in Bushwick

By Meredith Hoffman | October 18, 2013 8:02am
 A 2-year-old girl played near a fire hydrant in Harlem last summer. In Bushwick broken locks caused uncontrolled deluges throughout the summer, locals said.
A 2-year-old girl played near a fire hydrant in Harlem last summer. In Bushwick broken locks caused uncontrolled deluges throughout the summer, locals said.
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DNAinfo/Marcus Santos

BUSHWICK — Winter may just be beginning, but Bushwick is already guarding against another summer flood — from fire hydrants.

Broken tamper-proof locks caused dozens of hydrants to gush water uncontrollably last summer, some almost every day, said Bushwick community board members who are asking the city to replace the 20-year-old faulty lock guards.

"Hydrants were open all the time," Bushwick Community Board 4's chair Nadine Whitted said, noting that the locks had been put in place back in 1993 by the city's Department of Environmental Protection to guard against a water shortage and against abuse of the hydrants. "There was one on Covert Street that was open...almost every day."

Concern about the wasted water and the deluges into the streets has prompted the board to start requesting new locks throughout the neighborhood, and they ask anyone with knowledge of a faulty lock to contact them with the details.

"We want to start early for next summer," Whitted said.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection did not immediately return calls and emails requesting comment, but a past Daily News article notes that the agency installed more than 34,000 locks on the hydrants from 1993 to 1996.