Quelling the Hideous Stench on the Streets of Downtown Flushing

Long after the restaurant kitchens and video parlors have closed, when the lotus root, bok choy, and fresh and dried shrimp have been brought inside grocery stores for the night, and the last denizens of karaoke halls are stumbling home, Robin Veintimilla sets out on one of the most quixotic jobs in New York: making the streets of downtown Flushing, Queens – some of the most pungent in New York – less smelly.His tools are an ordinary street sweeper (“the brusher”) and a specially equipped diesel truck (“the flusher”), which soaks the streets with a deodorizing liquid. For the past two years, the Department of Sanitation has deployed this industrial spray in Flushing in the only program of its kind in New York. An “odor-eating bacteria” may be next.“It smells like Bazooka Joe when we spray it, and then by morning, the smell is gone, it just smells fresh,” said Mr. Veintimilla, who has worked nights for seven years for the city’s Department of Sanitation.Like Pac-Man in the maze, Mr. Veintimilla rides his trucks over same grid of streets from midnight until dawn, first sweeping, then spraying, until he is satisfied the job is done and the stench has abated.On an early summer morning, he drove the flusher from a Department of Sanitation garage in the marshes along Flushing Bay to the corner of Northern Boulevard and Main Street. In the daytime, this part of Main Street is one of the busiest in the borough, a transportation and commercial hub for eastern Queens.Reaching for a lever to his right, Mr. Veintimilla switched the truck’s four nozzles on, and foamy liquid shot out from the bottom of the vehicle, washing over the asphalt. As the flusher heaved forward, the liquid seemed to break like a wave on a beach.Mr. Veintimilla said he usually refills the 2,500-gallon tank three times a night.Inside the tank of the truck, “Bio|Scent Neutralizer” mixes with water before being squirted onto the street. Bio|Scent’s manufacturer, Hinsilblon, claims on its Web site that the product is entirely safe and “contains a blend of biodegradable essential oils extracted from natural plant origins, trace elements and a mild surfactant.” A surfactant is a surface active agent, an organic compound commonly used to fight grease.The task is formidable. By the end of the dinner shift, both sides of 40th Road, a one-block warren of Chinese restaurants and bakeries, are piled as high as 3 or 4 feet with garbage bags, crates, and other detritus. Mysterious liquids collect below the curb, and the oily pavement emits a pervasive, rancid smell after a full day of baking sun. 40th Road is widely considered the stinkiest spot in the neighborhood, maybe in all of New York.“Of course it affects business,” said Jonathan Chang, the manager of Emerald Island Restaurant, one of 14 eateries on Fortieth Road. “Some people don’t want to come because of the smell. But it has changed a little bit since they started to do something.”Mr. Veintimilla clearly relishes his job, despite the odd hours. His shift begins at midnight and ends around dawn. He takes lunch most days at 3:30 am and sees his wife and son mostly in the early evening or on weekends.“I love it. Love it. I’m working nights ’cause I gotta make that extra night differential,” said the 45-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, who also works part-time as a pallbearer.In a few weeks, Mr. Veintimilla will park the flusher in a garage for the cold months, when odors are less of a problem.But for City Council Member John Liu, who has secured a $20,000 allocation for the past two summers for the program from the city budget, this could just be the beginning. Mr. Liu speaks admiringly of cities where businesses are not permitted to leave their trash on the curb, and suggests that biotechnology could drastically improve the Department of Sanitation’s ability to fight odors.“We are on the verge of trying a biological agent that is basically an odor eating bacteria,” Mr. Liu said. “I’ve been studying this for the three years that I’ve been in office. When we say we want to clean the street, that is way to go.”

Quelling the Hideous Stench on the Streets of Downtown Flushing

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