Fresh Kills: From Landfill to Park on Staten Island

[@michaelcafaro4022]

But it’s still leaking from the bottom. They talk of a slurry wall to capture the leachate but you would have to go down over 100ft in spots and encompass each mound. I find that hard to believe that it was done. You can find old pictures from the 40’s on line and they were filling in fresh water ponds with garbage , truly heart breaking.

[@turkrane12]

My memory of the area goes back 70 years, an uncle lived in Travis, Al Deppes and the farms, an airport, an auction ,great memories

[@ValenteAdventures]

Remarkable I say. At least it's a park where wildlife can flourish and not a stinky dump site. I applaud the efforts of the people involved 👏 Here in Florida, we have massive landfills 100s of feet high. Grass overtakes it with lots of birds, and they harness the gas from it.

[@pfeilsusan]

I'm wondering when the trash decomposes will those mounds shrink. Not everything decomposes but much of the waste will deteriorate eventually.

[@EpicThe112]

I wonder if they found the process to use landfill gas when fresh kills landfill was operational if so there could have been a bus depot basically the Staten Island equivalent of Brooklyn Spring Creek & Jackie Gleason Queens College Point and Bronx 180th street West Farms depots However it Burns natural gas from landfills unlike the Brooklyn Bronx and Queens CNG depots which use pipe natural gas.

[@coletanner5193]

In the 1990s if you would have told anyone that fresh kills would be a beautiful Park in 25 years they would have a laughed and said why don't you go play in it!.. there should be enough methane under those hills to supply free gas to all SI homes!That black woman was not kidding about the stinky summertime..it's SO IGNORANT for leaders and engineers to chose such a beautiful area to be a dump in 1948..1848 would be more plausible, but in 1948 they turned a beautiful area with fresh water into NYC's dump

[@intorpere]

What happens when there's flooding, like during a major hurricane?

[@yourmother3207]

In nyc?

[@maureenwilson6031]

😂when the wind blew in the wrong direction, the stink was terrible near our house.

[@micholli]

I googled. The park is still closed in 2022.

[@TrajanaFortis]

Beautiful borough; lived there for 4 years. I hope when I return one day it will be even more beautiful.

[@3Kalman]

It willl never go away for human's sake. It is clear that a conflagration will be required to eradicate this creeping infection so that future beings whatever they may be can evolve. Perhaps an insect species who may actually live upon this pollution. This is mere ostrich behavior for humans. Two and 1/2 feet of dirt that is cleaner than"what is found in back yards" is of no consolation.

[@jeremyfowler1519]

Heard it’s super haunted. Any seen anything? I even heard of WWII nurse ghosts being there helping victims of 9/11.

[@12comrades]

Who came up with that name "Fresh" Kills. Really peaceful; no people that's the reason.

[@Robconnors7253]

R Tirado Fresh Kills in Dutch is Fresh Stream. .

[@sarthakjaiswal5864]

Wow nice use of tech & knowledge. Hope world learn something from it.

[@Teddy_Bass]

The O&K Rh120, the blue excavators where the only ones in the world ever to be fitted with Clamshell attachment. And the only ones that where blue

[@robin5380]

Was looking to see what the 9/11 debris fields looked like today. Thank YoU

[@ethanmackler1892]

where does the garbage go now?

[@wesfishcare]

A different landfill/dump

[@coletanner5193]

The ocean.. no really it goes to China who claims to recycle it but let's be real! In Indonesia they throw their trash into the river empties it out into the ocean!

[@michaeldaquino481]

The garbage continues to go to Fresh Kills, but it's compacted and put into steel containers and transported by rail to Virginia

[@justinwallace390]

Garbage heaven...

[@Agui007]

But all the plastic and hazardeous materials are still buried deep inside. A half hearted attempt at burying the problem and then sugar coating it.

[@Inkulabi]

4:03 they told the firefighters the air was safe to breath after 9/11 too which was false

[@jasonsimms4238]

are you saying that the air did not get better after words

[@Inkulabi]

@@jasonsimms4238 yes, it wasn't safe but I can't remember the ladys name who said it was safe to go back even after suggestions to her from specialists, been years now

[@wilcox728]

@@Inkulabi She was once the governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman. She was the former leader of the EPA at the time of the 9/11 terror attacks, she has since apologized and admits now that she was wrong. She admits misleading New Yorker's the quality of air over Ground Zero was safe and it was not. Nothing happened to her but hundreds are dying of cancer because of her.

[@kennyadvocat]

Wow so many tires in there.

[@intorpere]

I was just wondering if the soil and barrier material ever gets washed away, exposing the garbage. and if not, just curious how they managed to make it so effective.

[@jasonbladzinski5336]

It can, very easily. Most landfills are capped with a thick mostly dry layer of clay and a liner. Then soil is placed on top of the liner. If the soil on top of the liner washes away, the liner will be exposed making it easy to damage. Usually, landfills have to be monitored to prevent this. Soil and grass placed on top as supposed to help mitigate this problem. This is why grasses are usually planted while trees and shrubbery are not, even going as far as removing any such plants if they do manage to spring up. Roots of trees and woody shrubs can easily damage the liner, causing more water to enter and increase leachate production and methane escaping into the atmosphere. Landfills are tombs for garbage, because of the anaerobic conditions very little happens to the waste. People who have done studies have dug up hotdogs from decades ago that looked almost completely the same as when they went in, and newspapers from 100 years ago that could be read clear as crystals. Landfills will exist likely unchanged and only slightly decomposed probably long after humanity has gone extinct.

[@michaeldaquino481]

Who you kidding? This place still smells in the early mornings from April to September. They want to convert this place into a park? Give me a break! There is so much radiation buried in that ground that in glows from space. Please!

[@jasonsimms4238]

you just made all that up

[@michaeldaquino481]

@@jasonsimms4238 Then go enjoy it and have fun whenever it opens.

[@jasonsimms4238]

@@michaeldaquino481 there are literally thousands of people who go to ski resorts, parks and beaches that used to be landfills. its no big deal.

[@michaeldaquino481]

@@jasonsimms4238 Ok Enjoy.

[@coletanner5193]

Have you been there since 2008 when they opened it? I was there in the late 80s and the stench was so bad I thought 3 point something million people have to smell this all summer long!

[@fbi.7121]

Now it's a grave site ☹️

[@pfeilsusan]

I wonder if it is haunted.

[@sarthakjaiswal5864]

What really??

[@Junksaint]

Fresh Kills indeed

[@WDBsirLocksight]

Why would the FBIdk care....?

[@Junksaint]

Fresh Kills.

[@ryanOGab]

Why do they always gloss over it’s 9/11 history isn’t there human remains still their.

[@allenjohnson7686]

nice trees and grass on top of billions of tons of rubbish under it, gasses and contaminants leaking out of it. .... nice place for a day out with a gas mask

[@daviderenda9211]

Allen Johnson not how it works

[@allenjohnson7686]

have you ever seen a landfill after they have grassed it over? there are pipes coming out the ground to vent off the gas that is being made under it from all the rubbish. but hey if thats not how it works go ask if you can build a home on it and see how your health works out.

[@jasonbladzinski5336]

Davide Renda Yes, that is how it works. It's an aerobic environment in landfills, meaning no oxygen gets into the layers of trash. The decomposition is slowed, and it's the perfect environment for major greenhouse gasses like methane. Without the collection pipes, explosions are a hazard.

[@AlexLopez-rx8lw]

It's all contained.

[@AdamTaylor-g5p]

Needs trees and shrubbery.

[@TheNeedlefactory]

what a pile of crap. nice video

[@applecounty]

So?

[@applecounty]

@Freline Actually I am not there, I live in the disunited Kingdom (UK). But I do subscribe to the NYT.