The NYC City Council heard testimony from city sanitation officials yesterday on the plan to divert NYC residential trash away from the Fresh Kills landfill. Fresh Kills is scheduled to close in 2002. Under an "interim" municipal waste export plan, the city will send its trash out of town, mostly in trucks.

About 65% of Brooklyn's residential waste is now exported in 18-wheelers from several transfer stations. Some of these trucks drive across Staten Island to the Goethals Bridge. Others ply Manhattan streets on their way to the Holland Tunnel.

Next week, a new phase of trash export is scheduled to begin, with Staten Island and Manhattan trash being hauled directly in city garbage trucks to transfer stations in Elizabeth and Newark, and to a Newark incinerator. Next year, the remaining Brooklyn waste and all of Queens' trash will be removed from the city, most likely in trucks headed for New Jersey. Only the Bronx' trash, which is loaded into trains in the South Bronx, does not add to NYC's huge truck burden.

NYC Dept. of Sanitation officials a City Council panel that the truck export plan would have no significant environmental impact. Council members immediately took exception to the finding. Sunset Park's Angel Rodriguez told the officials, "either your investigation is terribly flawed or you are giving the wrong information to the City Council." Manhattan's Christine Quinn said, "The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels are nightmarish. I am concerned about impacts on people living near them. How can [the new truck flows] not be a significant impact?" Brooklyn's Stephen Di Brienza said, "I don't know why DOS locks us into truck based export."

This week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Big Apple Garbage Sentinel, an Internet newsletter that monitors New York City's changing solid waste policies, developed an overview of likely garbage export impacts at Hudson River crossings. The calculations were based on Sanitation documents and bridge and tunnel truck volumes compiled by NYMTC.

They found that the contracts to ship Manhattan and Staten Island garbage to New Jersey will likely increase the number of trucks using the Lincoln Tunnel by 6%, or 76,000 additional trucks during the next year, and will also hike truck traffic by over 4%, or nearly 40,000 more trucks per year, at the Staten Island-New Jersey Goethals Bridge.

Those numbers could soar even higher next year if the city also decides to move garbage from Queens and Brooklyn across the Hudson in trucks. The cumulative impact of a citywide truck-based garbage export system could see truck traffic climb over 1997 totals by nearly 15% at the Lincoln Tunnel, over 6% at the Goethals Bridge, 5.5% at the Holland Tunnel and 3% on the George Washington Bridge.

"If you live near the Lincoln or Holland Tunnels and believe truck noise, traffic and fumes can't get any worse, think again," said Tri-State's Lisa Schreibman.

Big Apple Garbage Sentinel

Hudson River Crossings:
Additional trucks due to NYC municipal waste export
 
 

                           Trash truck trips in one direction

Figures assume:

1. 40% of trucks currently exporting Brooklyn waste use SIE/Goethals. 60% use Canal St./Holland Tunnel

2. 40% of trucks used to export remaining Brooklyn waste (starting in 2000) will use SIE/Goethals. 60% will use Canal St./Holland Tunnel.

3. 50% of Queens waste (beginning in 2000) will reach NJ via Lincoln Tunnel, 50% via GWB

DOS plans assign garbage trucks from Manhattan community districts 1-4 to Holland Tunnel, 5-8 to Lincoln Tunnel, 9-12 to GWB.

Waste export truck data derived by Big Apple Garbage Sentinel from Request for Proposals to Receive Solid Waste at a Marine Transfer Station and Dispose of Solid Waste Received at an Out-of-City Facility. NYC Department of Sanitation. June, 1997. Appendix A. 1997 bridge and tunnel truck volumes compiled by NYMTC.