Fresh Kills Landfill: from dump to park

1. Fresh Kills Landfill: from dump to park Simon Schreier Department of Plant and Environmental Science

2. Fresh Kills Landfill -2,200 acre landfill -Staten Island -Opened 1947 -Once largest landfill in the world -Closed in 2001, briefly reopened

3. Important facts -75 ft. taller than statue of liberty -29,000 tons of garbage/day (1986) -Seagulls, rats consistent problem -archaic landfill -leaching, ground water contamination, toxics -Close in March, 2001 -Briefly reopened to handle 9/11 steel 650 tons X 44 = 29,000 tons/day

4. What was left when it closed -Subsoil totally covered and degraded -Natural regimes completely interrupted -150 million tons of solid waste -Landfill covered with layer of topsoil

5. What was there Salt Marsh Tidal Wetlands Forests Freshwater Wetlands Estuarine habitat Salt Marsh Estuary: salt meets freh Tidal Wetland

6. What’s the plan: Natural Systems Waterfront: uninterrupted waterfront planted with native species. Creates a habitat corridor, links to other waterways Watershed: Restore storm water retention functionality and improve connectivity to surrounding hydrology Vegetation: Reference other parts of NYC (Staten, Manhattan, Brooklyn). Increase overall diversity of plants to provide desirable habitat and aesthetic appeal Flyway: Provide a corridor for migratory seabirds, connecting them to The Atlantic Seaboard Flyway

7. Transportation Network Provide transportation for Staten Island, and connect the park to the community Create new water links to NYC, potentially rail links Connection to existing trails, greenways and other surface paths

8. Other goals Open spaces network: Largest park in NYC, more than doubling recreational green space Surrounding land: mixed-use development to promote landscape level protection and job growth Resources: harvest methane for fuel, vegetate land cover, provide spawning grounds and oyster habitat

9. Freshkills, NY circa 1912. Large areas are underwater. The area is largely undeveloped, with some industry and agriculture. Native species are plentiful, especially marine life The master plan proposed by Field Operations in 2001. The plan incorporates human usage into restoration and ongoing natural regimes

10. Technical aspects Soil engineering Development of an ecological community -The abiotic barrier has been broken -Develop plant communities based on surrounding ecology and similar habitats -Designing the pathways and human interactions to minimize degradation -Reintroducing historically important species

11. What’s been done 1999: NY government organizes international design competition 2003: Landscape architecture firm Field Operations wins the contract 2010: Mayor Bloomberg broke ground on the first park

12. The future 2001 2011 2040 Increase usage of reknewable energy Landfill monitoring ends by 2035 Stabilize woodland and wetland habitats Active regeneration completed by 2040 Community settlement complete by 2030 Complete regeneration by 2050

13. The end product

14. Literature Cited Anonymous. " New York, New York - Fresh kills landfill closes." Biocycle. 42.4 (2001): 22-23. Print New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Richard Impellitteri, Vincent. Fresh Kills landfill. 1st ed. New York: Tabard Press, 1951. Print. Loehfelm, Bill. Fresh Kills. 1st ed. London: Penguin Books, Ltd., 2009. Print. Field Operations, Inc. Fresh Kills Park: draft master plan. New York: New York City Department of City Planning, 2006. Print. Miller, Frederic, Agnes Vandome, and John McBrewster. Freshkills Park. Mauritius: VDM Publishing House Ltd, 2010. Print. Field Operations Incorporated

15. Questions