For Clove Lakes Park, the city appears to have created a tale of two parks.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella says city officials focus on parks visited by tourists while allowing a cherished neighborhood destination in the borough to be contaminated by raw sewage.
Fossella this week condemned what he called a toxic double standard as Clove Lakes Park deteriorates. He is demanding an emergency meeting involving city and state agencies after The Post reported that a collapsed sewer line connected to a lakeside restaurant has been releasing human waste into the lake for decades.
“If this were Central Park, people would be flipping out,” Fossella told The Post during a tour of the park’s wooded paths overlooking the heavily polluted lake.
The city Parks Department waited a week after The Post’s report before suspending boating and fishing at the park. Fossella said agencies have yet to provide him with a complete account of the contamination and its potential impact.
“What the public deserves is a safe, fun, healthy, public recreation area, and they don’t have it right now,” said the Republican borough president and former congressman.
Fossella, who played baseball at the picturesque park as a child, called for a comprehensive investigation into the pollution.
“What’s very unsettling and troubling is that it appears that this has been sort of going on for quite some time. We need to know who knew what and when,” the borough president said.
Officials may still be unaware of the full scope of the damage.
On Wednesday, Parks Department workers conducted a dye test to check whether additional sewer lines were failing throughout the grounds. One employee said crews were testing every building in the park.
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Asked whether the testing had uncovered more collapsed sewer lines, another Parks worker sighed and replied, “I plead the Fifth.”
The park’s public restrooms were closed while the tests were being carried out.
The Parks Department told The Post it was unaware of any other sewer lines leaking into Clove Lake and said it was coordinating with the Department of Environmental Protection on what happens next.
A longtime park visitor said plumbing problems at the location occupied by The Stone House restaurant have reportedly existed for as long as five decades.
“The basement always had sewage. I had a friend who worked there, he’d have to take his shoes off when he got home,” said Tad, a 71-year-old trucker who frequently visits the park.
Fossella accused city regulators of failing to intervene sooner and criticized them for not having or releasing key information about fecal coliform levels in the lake.
The revelations angered park visitors.
“There should be repercussions up and down the line,” said Sydney Russel, a 25-year-old radiologist.
“I’m upset about it, really. Because it was beautiful. I took my kids here, and they were little,” said Donna DeWaters, a 71-year-old retired Staten Island nurse.