Fresh Kills Park
Staten Island, NY
2,200 acres

Geology:

There is a lovely view of Arthur Kill and Fresh Kills Creek.

History:

1947  -- the Fresh Kills landfill opens.  Four trash mountains develop in the area.

2001  -- the Fresh Kills landfill closed.

2002  --  plans to make it a park (the largest in the city said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe).  The plans were ambitious too: open space, concert arenas, sports fields, wetlands, wildlife habitats, boating. Costs of making the area safe and usable ranged up to $1 billion dollars.  And there are problems with the remaining methane gas and polluted water. The Sanitation Department makes about $1 million a year on gas sales. But at  least the area does not smell of garbage.

There will be a memorial to be built on the 10-acre site where debris from ground zero 9-11 destruction of the twin towers was unloaded.

Fresh Kills park will be built in sections, the first area of about 10 acres to open perhaps in 2007.

Habitats:

fields, meadows, prairies, swamp forests, fresh and salt marshes.

From:
Garden State EnviroNews 021205 (www.gsenet.org)
LANDFILL TO PARK - GIVE IT TIME
Date: 021201
From: http://www.nytimes.com/
By Barbara Stewart, NY Times, November 28, 2002