By: Scott Brinton
The sun is shining brightly on this recent Wednesday, with storm clouds looming far to the North. Mr. Ronan points to a patch of assorted trees at the Mountain's southern base where, he says, construction workers spotted a fox last week.
The thought of a fox living -- and thriving -- here on the edges of suburban Merrick has Mr. Ronan excited. The fox is one sign that the former garbage dump is "making a comeback;" that is, it is returning to its natural state as a wildlife habitat.
If all goes well, the Town of Hempstead plans to open this habitat to local residents in October. The 49.6-acre plot, sandwiched between the Merrick Road Golf Course and Meadowbrook Parkway, is to be known as the Senator Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve, named for the Merrick state senator who died in 1998 after dedicating much of his life to preserving the environment.
The park is "here for the wildlife. We're the intruders," says Mr. Ronan, who, dressed in business attire, appears out of place amid the brush.
The preserve, which falls under the auspices of the Hempstead Town Sanitation Department, is known in the conservation field as a "passive park," where no human activity, save hiking, exercising, fishing and canoeing/kayaking, will be permitted. Even its toilets are designed with the environment in mind. (Human waste is flushed into beds of sawdust, where it decomposes naturally.)
The park will feature a "fitness trail" with 22 exercise stations, three miles of seashell-coated hiking paths, osprey nesting platforms, a fishing pier and canoe/kayak launch along the Meadow Brook - yes, the Meadow Brook actually exists.
Richard Guardino (R, Point Lookout), the Hempstead Town supervisor who joined Mr. Ronan for the Herald's tour of the park, said of the Levy Preserve: "It's a homerun."
Even some of the town's most outspoken critics, such as Viki DeJong (D, East Meadow??) of the Hempstead Solid Waste Advisory Committee, now a Town Council candidate, have come out in favor of the Levy Preserve. In a previous Herald article, Ms. DeJong said, "It seems to be a very good thing to do, primarily because it's going to be a passive park."
subhead: A challenging project
Dedicated in June, 1998, the park has been more than two years in the making - and before that, six years in the planning. Merrick activist Jay Pitti, in fact, first proposed what he called an "overlook park" at the landfill in the spring of 1984. Mr. Pitti said during a recent telephone interview: "It's taken 16 years of behind-the-scenes work and effort to bring [the park] to fruition."
The process of converting what was once a waste depository for much of Nassau's South Shore into what will be a breeding ground for indigenous flora and fauna has proved long and arduous.
First, the town had to close the landfill, which, according to Part 360 of State Environmental Conservation Regulations, required many rounds of tests. Those included probes for explosive gases (the byproducts of decaying garbage) that might be trapped inside the Mountain. Department of Environmental Conservation regs called for three initial rounds of gas tests -- followed by 30 years of monitoring any natural gas, such as methane, that may escape slowly from the landfill through filtering systems.
Next, the town had to deal with the estimated 3.8 million cubic yards of "waste material" that was piled high at the site between 1950 and 1980, when the dump closed. Traditionally, landfills of this magnitude have been "capped" - covered with giant sheets of hard plastic, then covered with dirt and grass.
For the Merrick landfill, the town opted for a markedly different approach. The town is "capping" only an eight-acre section of the former dump at its peak. There, a pond has been dug, which is already attracting seagulls and ducks. The pond's water is kept moving with a windmill to prevent it from stagnating and turning overgrown with algae.
The rest of the preserve is being filled in with tons of pure top soil, where "volunteer" trees and plants - those that sprout naturally at the site - will be allowed to grow to maturity. Simply finding the yards and yards of uncontaminated soil that have gone into the preserve, though, presented a tough challenge for the town.
Most fill soil these days contains, at the very least, traces of toxins, said Mr. Ronan. "It's a nightmare to find good soil," he said. Consequently, every load of soil shipped into the preserve is tested for hydrocarbons, which might indicate gasoline or kerosene in the fill, and every 5,000 cubic yards are probed for a myriad of pollutants. "Our specifications called for no contamination," Mr. Ronan said. "We didn't want to cover a landfill with a landfill."
Merrick Mountain's extremely steep slopes, coupled with the additional topsoil, prevent garbage residue locked inside it from escaping and running into surrounding properties, said Mr. Ronan. A State Department of Environmental Conservation official, who remains on site daily and whose salary is paid by the town, regularly tests rainwater runoff for contaminants from inside the Mountain. The town has set up seven groundwater monitoring stations around the site.
Reclaiming wetlands
Another challenge the town faced in developing the park was restoring three acres of wetlands at the entrance to the preserve. Years ago, those wetlands, which served as a breeding ground for a variety of ocean life, were filled with contaminated soil and what amounted to junk.
Town officials during the 1960's thought they were doing local residents a favor by covering what most folks considered a "swamp" - and breeding ground for mosquitoes, Mr. Ronan said. Few people realized the importance of the wetlands as part of a larger ecological chain, which, if destroyed, would lead to the demise of the local fishing and claming industry. Sadly, that is what happened in many of the bays that hug the South Shore. Fortunately, recent restoration efforts, such that undertaken at the Levy Preserve, are breathing new life into local waters.
Replacing lost wetlands, however, represents a task of epic proportions. To restore three acres at the Levy Preserve, the town had to first remove the tons of garbage and polluted soil that were dumped there. Then, it had to plant some 50,000 cord grass seedlings.
The problem was, the unrelenting tide carried off many of the seedlings. So, the town devised an intricate canal system that forces the tide to move slowly through the area, providing life-giving saltwater for the cord grass, without pulling the seedlings out to sea. Walls of coconut shavings, which will degrade naturally in few years, support the canals.
Problem two: Canada geese ate the seedlings. So, the town strung hundreds of yards of wire over the wetlands to prevent the geese from landing there - at least until the cord grass is strong enough to survive on its own.
Finally, the town had to find the hundreds of trees and bushes that are being planted at the preserve. These are not the plant life traditionally found in suburbia, but rather, flora that grows naturally in the wild, such as white spruce. So, the town could not simply run down to the corner nursery to buy the plants. Hempstead representatives searched high and low for suppliers, as far north as Buffalo, New York, and as far south as Virginia, Mr. Ronan said. The cord grass for the wetland project had to be grown especially for the town a year in advance of planting.
Fiscal prudence
Despite the numerous challenges -- and unforeseen costs -- the town had to meet for this project, it is saving millions of dollars with its unconventional approach to capping the landfill. If the town had gone with the usual approach - covering it with plastic and dirt - the municipality could have run an estimated $57 million tab. Instead, the total cost for this project will fall in the $15 million range - a $42 million saving. And, in the end, the town receives a park/outdoor education center, not simply a giant, grassy hill, noted Mr. Guardino.
The town has worked closely on this project with Lockwood, Kessler and Bartlett, the Syosset-based consulting engineering firm. Tully Construction, the Flushing, Queens-based company, is completing the actual construction.
Workers are now hurriedly putting finishing touches on the park. Several hundred trees and bushes must be planted before it will open to the public, said Mr. Guardino. Once those plantings are complete, however, the rumbling of heavy-duty earthmovers and 18-wheelers will be replaced by a calming silence, with only animals and hikers to disturb the peace and quiet.
