Lower East Siders Fuming That City Let Their Gas Pipes Deteriorate

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Tucked into a corner of the Lower East Side is 131 Broome St., a low-income housing complex that houses more than 200 people that hasn't had gas for 41 days. The gas was shut off when Con Ed workers went in and discovered several leaks in September. Now, the tenants association of the building blames the city for its negligence in letting the building's gas pipes get to the point where their glue had deteriorated into several leaks.

According to Sandra Strother, a tenant who has lived in the building since it opened 45 years ago, the glue that holds the gas pipes together in her building only lasts for around 30 years. She has never seen repairs done to the gas pipe glue in the years she's lived at 131 Broome St., she told Patch. If you do the math, that means the pipe glue has been deteriorating for 15 years.

Strother, who is also the vice president of the tenants association for the Grand St. Guild, told Patch that construction workers from MDG Design & Construction did extensive repairs to the building in 2010.

"The renovations were extensive enough that we had to be temporarily relocated," Strother said. "Everyone knows the glue must be checked every 30 years. At the time of renovations, the buildings were 36 years old. That's why we are stating it is negligence on the city's part because they should have done better."

MDG Construction & Design's website says through the city-funded $60 million project, the construction company upgraded bathrooms, kitchens, radiators, doors, electrical systems and repainted. It also built a new lobby, one third of the building's facade, redid brickwork, built a new 3,000-square-foot maintenance building, a community ampitheater and playground. It also rebuilt a steam system to make it more energy efficient, it says.

Construction workers broke down the walls to repair the water pipes in 2010, but they didn't repair the glue on the gas pipes, Strother said.

"What I hear the reason is, if you don't smell gas you don't check it," she said. "Which isn't the logical conclusion."

MDG has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Patch. The building's management company, Wavecrest Management and the Archdiocese of New York, the manager and co-owner of the building, have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

When Con Ed workers came into the building for an inspection Sept. 2, they found at least one leak in the laundry room and shut down the building's gas. Since then, just three of nine gas pipes in the building have been repaired by a private plumbing company, and hundreds of tenants are still unable to cook, Patch found.

The building houses majority senior citizens, shut-ins and other people for whom no gas is potentially life-threatening, Patch previously reported.

Photo credit: Sarah Kaufman/Patch