Alleging Clean Air Act violations, the suit was the culmination of a decades-long effort to close Fresh Kills Landfill.
Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari filed the lawsuit against the Mayor of the City of New York, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation, Governor of the State of New York, and Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Image: “The Fresh Kills Story: From World’s Largest Garbage Dump to a World-Class Park.”
At its peak of operation, Fresh Kills received as much as 29,000 tons of trash per day and employed 680 people. When Edgemere Landfill in Queens closed in 1991, Fresh Kills became the only active landfill in New York City.
April: The Fresh Kills Landfill Consent Order was issued between the City of New York and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). The consent order required compliance with New York State’s Solid Waste Management Facilities Regulations 6 NYCRR 360, specified conditions for closure of Section 2/8 and 3/4 and interim operation of Fresh Kills Landfill, and identifies collection of landfill gas as an integral part of the closure plan.
Image: DSNY Photo Archive.
After landfills in the Bronx are closed, Fresh Kills received nearly half the city’s garbage.
Image: DSNY Photo Archive.
By 1955, Fresh Kills was the largest landfill in the world, serving as the principal landfill for household garbage collected in New York City. The landfill grew to 1,284 acres in 1961. At around this time, the City of New York announced that dumping at Fresh Kills would continue for 15 more years.
Image: DSNY Photo Archive.
The City of New York and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses issued a proposal for development at Fresh Kills. The plan suggests that the area could be used for parks, private residential development, and an industrial zone along the west shore.
Fresh Kills Landfill was established by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and the City of New York. The initial idea was to keep the landfill open for about three years and “fill” the wetlands at the 450-acre site to prepare it for development.
Robert Moses has been called the “master builder” of mid-20th century New York City. He was instrumental in the construction of numerous bridges, highways, and parks, including Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, which was formerly the Ash Dump referred to in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The Fresh Kills site in its natural state was primarily tidal creeks and coastal marsh. The name “Fresh Kills” comes from the Middle Dutch word kille, meaning “riverbed” or “water channel.” In the early 1900s it was a stream and freshwater estuary in the western portion of the New York City borough of Staten Island.
Image: Isle of Meadows, Fresh Kills, 1933, via the Staten Island Museum.