I should also note that Brooklyn has a combined sewer system, wherein storm water (including from drains on the curb) and sewage are both fed into the same sewer and jointly processed at the same wastewater treatment plant.
This type of system was popular a very long time ago for its simplicity but its a bad system for a variety of reasons (which I wont get into unless someone is interested). Newer cities don’t combine sewage and runoff, so if these people were doing this in a newer city, they would be actively damaging the environment, and would certainly be in violation of more than a few local, state, and federal laws.
520 Chestnut 
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