An Electronic Newsletter 
of EEA's Environmental Consulting Activities
Winter 2003

EEA, Inc.
55 Hilton Avenue
Garden City, New York
(516) 746-4400
(212) 227-3200
(800) 459-5533

with additional New York offices in:
Stony Brook
(631) 751-4600
Altamont
(518) 861-8586

e-mail addresses:
General:
mailto:eea@eeaconsultants.com

Individual:
First initial and last name
@eeaconsultants.com

EEA services include 
Phase I ESAs, Haz-Mat
Testing and Remediation, Wetlands Delineation 
and Creation, Natural
Resources Inventories,
Marine Ecology Studies,
Air Quality and Noise
studies, and Environmental Management System (ISO 14000) implementation. 

Visit our web site at http://www.eeaconsultants.com/

For information or
quotes contact:

Phase I ESAs
Richard Fasciani

Phase II/III Haz-Mat
Testing and Remediation
Nicholas Recchia, CPG

Dredge Management Testing Jeffrey Shelkey             

EAS/EIS Studies
Janet Collura

Wetlands Studies and
Design
Laura Schwanof, RLA

Marine Ecology
Teresa Rotunno

Terrestrial Ecology
Denise Harrington

Air Quality and Noise
Victor Fahrer, P.E.

Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14000)
Robert Clifford

EEA, Inc. - 
founded in 1979

Principals
Leland M. Hairr, Ph.D.
President

Allen Serper, M.S., P.E.
Vice President

Roy R. Stoecker, Ph.D.
Vice President


      

NEW YORK CITY PRODUCES 15,000 TONS 
PER DAY OF REFUSE

What Happens to This Small Mountain of Garbage?

During the 1960s, to the 70s, the City’s refuse was sent to numerous landfills in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens. Proposals to build incinerators in the five boroughs to burn the waste as the landfills were being closed were defeated by local opposition. During the 1990s, the last remaining landfill, Fresh Kills on Staten Island, received most of the refuse. The refuse was transported to Fresh Kills by barge. Eight marine transfer stations (MTS) located in all five boroughs were the focal points for transshipment of the refuse from trucks to barges. 

Overall the system worked well because utilizing barges 
to move the refuse was far more economical and environ- mentally advantageous than trucks.

Defining efficient and acceptable ways to dispose of the refuse generated by the nation's largest city is a complex consideration of technical, public opinion, political and regulatory agencies' concerns.

However, in the year 2000, the Fresh Kills Landfill was closed and all refuse was exported to disposal sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and upstate New York. Refuse trucks picking up along New York City’s streets take the refuse to various transfer stations where it is either loaded onto rail cars or, more commonly, transferred to large trucks. The marine system, which had worked so well for so long was effectively abandoned. 

Recently, Mayor Bloomberg ordered the reinstatement of the marine system. Under conceptual plans drawn up by the Department of Sanitation, up to eight of the MTSs will be rebuilt to accommodate compactors and containers. The waste will again be brought to the MTSs; but this time loaded into sealed containers, which, in turn, will be placed on barges for shipment to out of state landfills. The environmental benefits of reactivating the marine system are impressive with predicted reductions in traffic, noise and air pollution.

EEA’s Involvement


For the past 15 years, EEA has been analyzing and solving environmental problems in the disposal of refuse for New York City’s Department of Sanitation. Special studies have included:
- plans for the closure of Fresh Kills Landfill, 
- design and installation of test controls for floating waste in the waters around Fresh Kills,


EEA Installing Test Boom to Control Floating Refuse at Fresh Kills Landfill

- simulation studies for the control of floating refuse at MTSs, 
- protection of existing wetlands and plans to create new wetlands, 
- evaluation of land disposal alternatives for dredge spoils, 
- performing Environmental Site Assessments for candidate refuse handling sites throughout the City, and 
- testing for methane gas emissions at Fresh Kills.



EEA's Research Vessel "The Kingfisher"

In addition, for the past five years, EEA has been a part of the consulting team, with HDR Engineering and Parsons Brinckerhoff Engineers (PB), that produced the revised Solid Waste Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statements for the City. Currently, HDR, PB and EEA are evaluating further revisions needed to the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan and revisions to the Environmental Impact Statement to accommodate reactivation of the marine system.


Watch for the upcoming Spring 2003 Edition of Insights. Featuring: "Look Offshore For Future Siting of Wind Electric Generators" and EEA's involvement.

01/14/03