Yonkers' Sewage Crisis: Why It Keeps Happening, and What a County Legislator Can Actually Do About It
In 2022 alone, Yonkers had 13 separate sewage overflow events. Thirteen times in a single year, raw sewage spilled into our rivers and into people's homes. If you live here, there's a good chance you've seen it yourself, whether it was a flooded basement, a destroyed boiler, or a street that turned into a river during a storm.
I made a video breaking down exactly why this keeps happening and what a county legislator actually has the power to do about it. Here's the full story.
The Root of the Problem: A 200-Year-Old System
Yonkers runs on a combined sewer system, meaning rainwater and sewage share the same pipes. That design dates back roughly 200 years, to an era of a much smaller city and far lighter rainfall than we see today.
That system was never built for the storms we're getting now. As little as one-twelfth of an inch of rain can be enough to trigger an overflow. When a storm hits and the pipes get overwhelmed, sewage backs up into toilets, drains, and the lowest points in people's homes. Basements flood. Boilers are destroyed. Schools sometimes have to close.
And it's not a rare event anymore. Just this past July, the Sawmill River Parkway flooded again, cars submerged, and the Bronx River Parkway had to be shut down. This is happening every year now, sometimes more than once a year.
It's Getting Worse, Not Better
Here's what makes this especially frustrating: while our sewer system is already overwhelmed, the county keeps approving new development in Yonkers. Thousands of new apartment units are being added, which means more people and more water running through the exact same 200-year-old pipes.
Westchester County itself has acknowledged that Yonkers is near sewage capacity. And yet, approvals for new buildings keep coming.
What a County Legislator Can Actually Do
This is the part people don't always realize: county legislators vote on development approvals. That vote is real leverage, and it's not being used the way it should be.
Here's my commitment: I will not vote to approve a single major development project unless it can prove, with actual engineering data, that our infrastructure can handle the added load.
Beyond that, there is federal and state funding available specifically for combined sewer system upgrades, and Yonkers has not gone after all of it. That has to change. As your county legislator, aggressively pursuing every dollar available for these upgrades will be a priority from day one.
This Affects Real Families, Right Now
Has your street flooded? Has sewage ever backed up into your home? I want to hear about it, drop it in the comments on the video, I read every single one.
This isn't an abstract policy issue. It's basements, boilers, and kids missing school because a treatment system built two centuries ago can't keep up with 2026 storms and 2026 development.
On November 3rd, I'm asking Yonkers for your vote, so we can start fixing this the right way: by holding new development accountable, and by finally going after the money that's sitting on the table to fix the pipes we already have.
Watch the full video here: Yonkers Sewage Crisis: Why It Happens & How To Fix It
Dan D'Amico is running for Westchester County Legislature, District 16, representing Yonkers.
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