By Chris Fuchs
Fresh Kills, Staten Island’s 3,000-acre sprawling landfill received its final load of trash last week, turning a corner in the way the city handles its more than 13,000 tons of refuse generated each day. And Queens earned the distinction of being the last borough to ship garbage there.
The final delivery was made last Thursday by barge from the North Shore Marine transfer station in Flushing Bay. It contained roughly 600 tons of garbage collected from the Rockaways, Flushing, Ridgewood and Howard Beach, closing the final chapter of a 53-year-old story that gave rise to one of the largest landfills in the country.
But the closing of Fresh Kills has also opened a new chapter in the city’s garbage quandary, causing considerable acrimony in northern Queens, where a station to temporarily store trash in Willets Point was put into service more than two weeks ago.
The station, which is under contract with Tully Environmental, began processing about 400 tons of household garbage on March 12, said Tom Kunkel, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The permit, which expires in 2005, allows the facility to handle a maximum of 500 tons of household trash a day, he said. It is one of 15 transfer stations under city contract throughout the five boroughs to temporarily store refuse before it is hauled off to out-of-state landfills, a process that is expected to cost on average $64 for every ton shipped.
Since early February, however, residents and business leaders of downtown Flushing have protested the Willets Point station on 35th Avenue, saying it will drive down their property values while polluting the commercially bustling district.
Because of these concerns, Kunkel said, the Department of Environmental Conservation has temporarily limited the tonnage accepted at that station, inspecting it as well for violations. None had been issued as of presstime, he said.
Willets Point, the section of Queens where the station is being built, is also shrouded in some degree of uncertainty. In January, Queens Borough President Claire Shulman filed plans to declare the 55-acre tract across from Shea Stadium an urban renewal area, a move that would force out the myriad autobody shops that have defined the district’s landscape for decades and make room for commercial development.
Shulman’s spokeswman, Dan Andrews, said in an interview Monday that the declaration was soon to be brought before Community Board 7, which covers Willets Point. Marilyn Bitterman, the district manager of the board, said that as of Monday, the proposal had not reached the board.
In an interview last Thursday, Shulman said that if Willets Point is declared an urban renewal area, then all of the businesses in the district would be required to close. Kunkel would not comment about what impact, if any, that would have on the transfer station.
“It’s permitted for [five years], but it could shut down earlier,” he said.
Kunkel said there are now a total of 90 transfer stations in the five boroughs, 15 of which were brought under the city’s plan to store garbage once Fresh Kills closed. By 2005, the city Department of Sanitation is expected to ship about 6,500 tons of trash each day by barge from five such facilities to a private transfer station in Linden, N.J., Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.
The remaining trash would be brought to landfills by rail or by barge.
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
