EXCLUSIVE: Backed-up Bay 8th Street bathroom mains were freely flowing

It’s a sewage screw-up.

The bathrooms at Bay 8^th Street playground have been out of service for a year and a half, not because of a broken water main as previously thought, but because the sewer mains running out of the park are not connected to the existing sewer mains on Bay 8^th Street and Cropsey Avenue.

“Parks contractors are working at this site and we’re coordinating with the Department of Environmental Protection to connect to their existing sewer main,” said Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the Parks Department. “It is our hope to expedite this work so that the comfort station can once again be fully functional.”

Thousands of people use the park, which has not only a large playground and green space but is adjacent to a tennis court, a grilling area and the Ben Vitale ballfields. Although park-goers are able to use one of the four Portosans, there is no place to wash hands properly.

But there is an even dirtier problem to deal with. It is likely that all of the sewage and water have been just flowing underground, to parts unknown.

“I am stunned to hear that it was never connected and I think we should find out how that happened,” said Josephine Beckmann, district manager of Community Board 10. “We certainly will follow up with Parks and DEP. It warrants a closer look at what is happening to the earth underground with all that sewage.”