What was a truck from a firm that bills itself as “helping solve many of America’s toughest industrial waste problems” doing sucking stuff from beneath a grate on Grand Street in Williamsburg yesterday? Hopefully, it was something run-of-the-mill, but nasty. In any case, a reader left word on our post about the drilling for samples of toxic soil at the Public Place site in Gowanus:
Speaking of toxic land and drilling…right now b/w 2-3pm there is a large truck from Allstate Power Vac sucking out dark material from a grate on Grand Street b/w Bedford and Berry St in Williamsburg….this area has had curious gas smell reports over the past several months that when the Gas co Keyspan arrived to inspect, they said it was not gas….The neighbors are wondering if the gas smell is from gasoline/oil ..etc. The Power vac truck makes them wonder more…they are a toxic waste specialist firm.
Indeed, among the things that the company with the truck that sucks muck does is to perform services “nobody else can do, or want to do. At locations ranging from New York City’s largest public utility complex to New Jersey’s troubled sewer systems…”
4 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Nov 9, 2007 at 9:06 am
wow, that’s never happened before in new york city!
thanks for the scintillating groundbreaking news.
2 Anonymous // Nov 9, 2007 at 10:13 am
I live on Degraw Street and work for a civil engineering firm. I have worked with Allstate Power Vac before, and they primarily clean sewers and catch basins. This is most likely the case here – those giant trucks are cleaning the sewer, after which thye will probably send in a remote probe to inspect the structural integrity of the sewer. What instigated this cleaning and inspection? It could be that basins were backing up or that there was an unexplained settlement in the roadway prompting the City to dispatch these guys to see if there is a sewer collaps in the area.
3 Anonymous // Nov 9, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I saw this truck sucking the muck out of a sewer under the Marcy Ave stop of the J/M/Z line on Broadway. Seemed to be pretty routine preparation for winter. LOTS of gross looking muck coming out of that sewer….
4 slick // Nov 10, 2007 at 6:28 pm
It’s a sewer after all. Everything in there is gross.