The Environment

Spreading the word about Levy Preserve

Town gives federal parks commissioner a tour

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With a herd of Nigerian dwarf goats eating their way through a field of mugwort weeds in the background, Town of Hempstead officials welcomed National Parks of New York Harbor Commissioner Joshua Laird to the Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve in Merrick last Thursday.

Laird and a contingent of federal and New York City officials came to the 52-acre preserve to understand better how to convert a decommissioned landfill into a wildlife refuge.

The National Park Service, Laird said, is considering transforming the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue landfills in Brooklyn, totaling more than 400 acres, into parks similar to the Levy Preserve. The park service owns the landfills, which sit amid the 26,000-acre Gateway National Recreation Area. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection oversees them.

The recreation area spans Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Sandy Hook, N.J. The park service, Laird said, is starting “to focus on urban areas” in the hope of creating more green spaces amid the concrete. Reclaiming landfills such as the two in Brooklyn is a possible step in that direction.

Landfills, Laird noted, offer vistas for park-goers. From atop Levy Preserve, 115 feet above sea level, the Manhattan skyline is visible on a clear day.

The view, Laird said, “is the appeal of the site.”

The commissioner, however, said conversion of the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue landfills would be an “incremental transition” that would have to pass numerous federal and state regulatory requirements.

Patti Rafferty, acting chief of resources management for the Gateway National Recreation Area, was among the officials on the Levy Preserve tour. “I’m here to learn about the process” of converting a landfill to a park, she said. “What are the challenges? What are the opportunities?”

The challenges

Among the greatest challenges is methane gas, said Paul Lappano, vice president of environmental engineering for Lockwood Kessler & Bartlett, Inc., the Syosset-based firm that designed the Levy Preserve.

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