introduction to the Tullytown article:
Tullytown has been the major dumping site of New York City’s waste for many years. About 8,600-tons-per-day are daily transported to the site! Due to poor waste management, Tullytown has experienced complications such as the release of toxic leachate into the environment and the possible import of radioactive sludge. This page elaborates upon the complexity of the problem and offers solutions.
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The Easy Way Out Is Not The “Greener” Way
This Op-Ed would appear in a newspaper like the New York Times. The Times targets a more educated audience and encourages the readership of such people. The audience of this particular piece, with emphasis on the environment, would largely include students (especially university students), environmentalists, and people who have influence over policy issues.
New York City utterly fails in maintaining an environmentally friendly position when it comes to waste disposal. Where exactly is this failure evident? The city seems to relinquish itself of its waste efficiently with its routine street cleaning and sanitation truck pick-ups. Everything seems to be fine as there is no urgency in policy reform. This efficiency, however, is all an illusion masked by the tangible environmental destruction of Tullytown, Philadelphia, the city’s major dumping site. Not even the infamous stereotypes of Staten Island as a major dumping site compare to the situation in Tullytown.
Tullytown was once a simple town with a still significantly lower population density than New York City. Immediate change took place when it was chosen as the largest waste-importing site by the largest waste-exporter of interstate trash. Today, the town has two landfills, one 10,000 ton-per-day site, and the other an 8,600-ton-per-day site. The sublime ten stories high major landfill clearly shows that New York City is solving its own waste problem in a “greener” way by taking away all of the “green” in Tullytown.
A major problem of the waste-exporting site is the heavily polluted rainwater that persistently seeps out. The expertise of local sewage authorities and the National Waste is to blame because an operational plan, to eliminate all of the rainwater trickling down through the dump and siphoned out of the bottom as leachate, still has not been implemented. This water is laced with chemicals from beverages to household cleaners and roadway oils. Traces of ammonia alone in the leachate are so significant that the compound is siphoned off in commercial amounts!
How exactly is this problem being combated? Since 1988, Waste Management seemed to be handling all of the major issues. The program oversees two landfills, a recycling center, and a waste-to-energy plant; some “green” seems to be maintained in this regard. In addition to handling the waste problem, the program provides $5000 to 2,100 taxpayers by fees from the dump. The town gathered a surplus of $54 million and used much of this money to provide itself with a new fire truck, more jobs in law enforcement, new luxury homes, and an elaborate Borough Hall. With such accelerated development, the waste issue seemed to disappear.
Then, in 2008, a plan was initiated to bring radioactive sludge from New York City to Tullytown. It seemed the landfill site would soon glow green. A new and more devastating problem was introduced. Approved by state and federal regulators, more than 50 truckloads of sludge laced with radioactive material from the uniforms of nuclear plant workers were on the way. All of a sudden, urgency in policy reform was advocated. Tullytown began to fight against the new plan. According to Council President Ed Armstrong, the major concern was leakage of radioactive material into the Delaware River, which was a source of drinking water. Reports sent by Waste Management stated the nuclear dump plan clearly. The only problem was that the small report was overlooked because of a 30-foot stack of other reports. Regardless, the problem was clear. New York City opted to strip more “green” from Tullytown.
Fortunately, for Tullytown, land for dumping waste is now scarce. Within less than 5 years, there will no longer be any space to dump more waste. The town will have lost its source of pollution and unfortunately, wealth. On the other hand, this new situation makes it easier for Tullytown to argue against the radioactive waste management plan.
What are alternatives to waste storage that would prevent another tragedy like Tullytown? Rather than focusing on storing waste, cities should divert their efforts to sustainability. Waste must be reused or recycled back into resources; a close-ended loop should be the focus here. If impossible to reuse and recycle, the next priority must be to reduce the volume of waste. This can be done through incinerating waste in order to extract and utilize all its potential energy. Composting is another, better alternative because it causes the accelerated decomposition of the organic matter of waste. Whatever the case is, storage in landfills must be of lowest priority.
With Tullytown out of the way, where will New York City next dump its trash? Who will be bribed by the city into housing its waste? It’s important to note the ecological issues involved before accepting such a bribe. Yes, Tullytown was able to thrive economically but the damaged environment ultimately limited its growth. The town wanted to build ski slopes over its landfill mounds but heat from processed waste underground prevented this. Trees could not even be grown over the site because roots would damage containment barriers. Such an artificial environment could sustain only fake trees. The lesson learned here is landfills are not a “greener” solution.
