Свалка Фреш-Киллс: от мусора к парку

The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the New York City borough of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island. The landfill opened in 1948 as a temporary landfill, but by 1955 it had become the largest landfill in the world, and it remained so until its closure in 2001. At the peak of its operation, in 1986, Fresh Kills received of residential waste per day, playing a key part in the New York City waste management system. From 1991 until its closing it was the only landfill to accept New York City's residential waste. It consists of four mounds that range in height from and hold about of solid waste. The archaeologist Martin Jones characterizes it as "among the largest man made structures in the history of the world." In October 2008, reclamation of the site began for a multi phase, 30 year site redevelopment. The landfill has been developed into Freshkills Park.

New York's municipal incinerators peaked in capacity with 21 plants in 1937 and declined during World War II when salvage and conservation programs reduced the use and discard of combustible materials. The result was the closing of nine of the city's incinerators and a sharp reduction in the combustion of waste by 1944. By 1946, only ten incinerators were in operation, with capacity having declined by half since 1937. This meant more solid waste for the city's eight landfills to handle. The two landfills in Brooklyn and the two in the Bronx had, respectively, just one and two years left before reaching capacity. Only one landfill, Edgemere Landfill in Queens, had a long term future, and as such, an alternative site had to be found. The plan was endorsed by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority chairman, Robert Moses. He wanted the area to be developed as Staten Island's industrial base, as it was opposite the Arthur Kill from the heavy industry of New Jersey. Moses saw the project as key to the development of the island, and with it, the possibility of more parkland, highways, industry, and possibly even an airport. Staten Island residents and their representatives opposed the plan. Assemblyman Edmund P. Radigan introduced a secession bill in the Legislature. A bill was passed (later vetoed by the governor) requiring all garbage to be incinerated before dumping. The talk of using Fresh Kills for only three years may have been a ploy to allow Hall to save face politically. As described in an inter departmental report from 1946: "Because of the substantial sums involved in the preparation and acquisition of the [Fresh Kills] site, [in order to justify this expense] the City must dispose of refuse at this location for a number of years." One of the first steps taken was the dredging of the marsh to allow the passage of the city's garbage scows. Shortly before the landfill opened, an expansion of the landfill project was approved by the City Planning Commission, which called for a project organized in 13 sections. In 1950, the height was increased to By 1955, Fresh Kills was the largest landfill in the world, serving as the principal landfill for household garbage collected in New York City. After much deliberation, New York City was required to pay $1 million for past pollution damages as well as pay for the cleanup. No reparations were paid to the business owners on the Jersey Shore for revenues lost during the months of inactivity.

As a result of intense community pressure, a state law was passed in 1996 requiring that the landfill cease accepting solid waste by the end of 2001. By 1997, two of the four landfill mounds were closed and covered with a thick, impermeable cap. The landfill received its last barge of garbage on March 22, 2001. At its peak of operation in 1986–87, Fresh Kills received as much as of trash per day. It was estimated that, if kept open, the landfill would have eventually reached a height of 500 feet (152 m) or more. At this height, it would have been taller than Todt Hill making it the highest point on the East Coast south of Mount Desert Island in Maine. Under local pressure from Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, and with the support of mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York state governor George Pataki,

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Fresh Kills was temporarily reopened as a sorting ground for roughly a third of the rubble from Ground Zero. More than 1,600 personal effects were retrieved during this time. About of rubble came here for sorting. Thousands of detectives and forensic evidence specialists worked for over 1.7 million hours at Fresh Kills Landfill to try to recover remnants of the people killed in the attacks. A final count of 4,257 human remains was retrieved, but only 300 people were identified from these remains. A memorial was built in 2011, which also honors those whose identities were not able to be determined from the debris. The remaining waste was buried in a portion of the landfill; it is highly likely that this debris still contains fragmentary human remains.

The Fresh Kills site was transformed into reclaimed wetlands, recreational facilities and landscaped public parkland, the most significant expansion of the New York City parks since the development of the chain of parks in the Bronx during the 1890s. The new park was designed by James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architecture firm also responsible for the design of the High Line in Manhattan. In January 2005, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro announced plans to open three roads leading out of the former landfill to regular traffic, as part of an effort to ease road congestion. Construction on the actual park began in 2008. The three phase development of the park, which includes a September 11 memorial, is expected to last 30 years. The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was published for public review in May 2008. Construction drawings for the first phase of development in the South Park section were completed in mid 2011. With an eventual size of , Freshkills Park will be three times the size of the Central Park. It consists of a variety of public spaces and facilities for a multitude of activity types. The site is large enough to support many sports and programs including nature trails, horseback riding, mountain biking, community events, outdoor dining, sports fields, and canoeing/kayaking. Schmul Park, the first section of Freshkills Park, opened to the public in 2012. Although the park is not scheduled for completion until 2037, the Parks Department reported that in 2010–11 two hundred species of wildlife had been seen in the former landfill. These included red winged blackbirds, American goldfinches, red tailed hawks, American kestrels, osprey, ring necked pheasants, tree swallows, turkey vultures, and northern snapping turtles.