Ordinarily, I send out a “bonus” edition of the newsletter to paid subscribers on Mondays. These Monday editions are usually just an extra set of images that, for one reason or another, didn’t make the cut for the regular neighborhood feature.
I had quite a few extra images that I couldn’t include in last week’s newsletter. Also, I didn't get to write about one of the most prominent features of Edgemere, the dump. So I thought I would send this special bonus edition to everyone.
The northern tip of Edgemere was once home to both an airport and a landfill. The airport was only open for 20 years and was eventually demolished to make way for housing projects in 1958.
The dump, on the other hand, defied the odds and stayed open for 53 years, making it the longest continuously operating landfill in the United States. It also holds the distinction of being the highest point in the Rockaways at 70’ tall.
PHOTOS
NOTES
Edgemere Landfill Timeline
1938 - Within weeks of the dump’s opening, neighbors complained about fumes strong enough to peel the paint off their houses, fires, and rat infestations.
1939 - Sanitation Commissioner Carey and Health Commissioner Rice were indicted on charges of "unlawfully dumping raw garbage and maintaining a public nuisance."
This photo and caption of the smiling dumpers leaving court say it all: Commissioner of Sanitation Carey (left) and Heath Commissioner Rice leaving the Queens County Courthouse, Long Island City, do not appear to be greatly worried despite the fact both were indicted on charges of unlawfully dumping raw garbage and maintaining a public nuisance in Queens, to which they have just pleaded not guilty. Brooklyn Eagle. March 28, 1939
The charges were dropped when not enough witnesses were found to testify.
1940 - Dumping resumed after a dubiously commissioned study found the landfill to be “one of the best methods for controlling rats and mosquitos in marshes and swamps.”
1966 - The Parks Department began spraying the pesticide Dalapon to combat mosquitoes, RATS, and phragmites.
1974 - The bodies of three boys from the Edgemere Houses were found on the beach surrounding the Edgemere Landfill. Their deaths were suspected to have been caused by drowning or a lightning strike
1975 - Some unlucky seagulls were sucked into the engine of DC-10 taking off from JFK, causing it to crash. At the time, 20 to 30 thousand herring gulls resided in Jamaica Bay, drawn in large part by the all-you-can-eat buffet the landfill provided. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that the landfill be shut down. The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) disagreed.
1979 - In one six-week stretch, 11 bird strike incidents were attributed to the Edgemere flocks.
1981 - It was discovered that beginning in the early ’70s, DSNY supervisors were being paid $100 per truck to dump liquid toxic waste from Exxon, Chrysler, Ford, and other stewards of the environment at five of the city's landfills, including Edgemere. In addition, waste oil was used to “keep down dust” at the landfill.
1983 - Nearly 3,000 55-gallon metal waste drums were discovered inside the landfill when a tractor struck the drums by accident. A month later, the dump was classified as a superfund site though it continued to accept waste for another eight years.
1991 - The dump was finally shut down
2016 - A group of students discovered a population of diamondback terrapins in the landfill.
How did I miss the DUMP? Now I must return (tho I was planning to anyhow.)
Really great work.