Long overdue, the blight of former "Brookfield" is undergoing one of the largest remediation and transformations in New York State history. Now, Staten Island will be graced with one of the most picturesque parks in New York City.
If 
you live on Staten Island, there's a high chance you've heard about how the Fresh Kills Landfill will be transformed into a park in the future. What you may not have heard, though, is that Staten Island is home to yet another landfill which will also be transformed into a park. While it may not take up as much space as the Fresh Kills Landfill, it is still pretty big, itself.(Photo© Below A New Day Awakens Brookfield, Staten Island)Â
From the late 1960s, up until the early 1980s, a 132-acre site above Staten Island's Arthur Kill Road was operated as a landfill by the New York City Department of Sanitation. Roughly 1,000 tons of wastes were disposed here each day, seven days a week. Most of the time, hazardous waste was illegally dumped here.
At the beginning of the 1980s, an investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had then learned of the toxic wastes residing on the site. The Federal Bureau of Investigation soon came to find that this landfill was only one of five sites in the
City of New York that was involved in this illegal dumping. This led to the arrest of a New York City Department of Sanitation official, as well as an operator who had hauled the waste onto the site.
Since that time, many promises had been made to remediate the site, but that just never happened. Now that the City has finally obtained the necessary funding to do so, they can actually begin taking the corrective measures to beautify the site. The remediation will be done under the management of the New York State Department of Environment Conservation.
The site of which we speak would be what is referred to as the Brookfield Avenue Landfill. This is due to the fact that the site is to the north of the intersection of Arthur Kill Road and Br
ookfield Avenue-Arthur Kill Road being the southern boundary of the site.
Early on in April of 2010, ground was broken at the Brookfield Avenue Landfill. For almost two years, Staten Islanders had been wondering if any progress had been made. Finally, not too long ago, we received an update that the second phase of remediation is underway. The remediation of the park is expected to take three and a half years, so this phase of the project should be done by 2013.
Once the remediation has finished, the site will be transferred over to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. At that time, they will construct the necessary facilities to provide the community with an active and passive park. The facilities will be worked on during the following four years.
If all goes according to plan, the Brookfield Avenue Landfill site should be transformed into a beautiful park between 2017 and 2018. This will be at a cost of $266 million. The City of New York will be providing $166 million of the funding, while the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation provides $100 million.
Posted by Anthony Licciardello on
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