STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Garret Mosley, 61, of New Brighton, took home the top prize at the recent city Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations fourth annual InterBorough Catch Basin Mania Cleaning Competition.
This year’s competition featured workers from each borough, judged on both speed and safety of their cleaning at the Queens Repair Training Center on June 20.
Mosley, who has worked at the DEP for 37 years, competed for the first time. For the past 12 years, he has dedicated his work to cleaning thousands of catch basins across the boroughs.
Regular cleaning of the catch basins, also known as storm drains, is a crucial step to ensuring the New York City sewer system functions, since those that become clogged with debris can cause flooding. Functioning and cleaned basins drain water into underground sewer pipes that carry it to wastewater resource recovery facilities or into local waterways.
“You’re out there on your own each day cleaning catch basins,” Mosley described. “You get assigned a certain amount of catch basins a day, and you just go do your work. Some take hours. Some could take 10 minutes.”
“You’re out there on your own each day cleaning catch basins,” Mosley said. “You get assigned a certain amount of catch basins a day, and you just go do your work. Some take hours. Some could take 10 minutes.” (Courtesy of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection)
This event not only celebrated the hard work and talent of the workers, but also highlighted how important their role is to the city.
“It’s a day off and day out, just to celebrate the job,” Mosley said. ” You get see a lot of guys you started with and a lot of old timers. A lot of them have been around for 30 or 40 years. It’s like a meet and greet.”
Mosley is not only celebrating his champion award, but his future retirement.
“This is a nice achievement, something I can have and show my kids,” he stated, ” I’m about to retire. So I said, let me just do this. Give it my all one last time.”
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