Former Brooklyn landfills capped and transformed into prairie
The Fountain Avenue Landfill and neighboring Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill in Brooklyn, New York have taken on a whole new look and life. The Department of Environmental Protection spent $200 million to cap the landfills with a layer of plastic and cover them with clean soil, shrubs and trees. The former landfill sites have been transformed into 400 acres of nature preserve, a new prairie on the outskirts of the city.
The site is still listed as a toxic waste site and is not open to the public. The landfills had long been dumping grounds for residential trash, asbestos, incinerator ash, construction and demolition debris, and the bodies of mob victims. After they were closed, their runoff washed toxic waste into Jamaica Bay until they were rehabilitated in 1995, capped with a layer of clay and plastic. Weeds grew on top of the capped sites for years until the new ecological plan was instituted in 2004 with the seeding and planting of shrubs and trees. Ospreys, egrets and snowy owls have now found a home in the new prairie.
For the full story, go to The New York Times.
