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LGA Trash Dump

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BILL LUMBERG

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Posts
2,074
We should ALL pay attention to this......This may come to a waterside airport near you soon!! Who comes up with this stuff?




Federal panel OKs trash site by LaGuardia

By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
A trash facility being built next to New York's LaGuardia Airport is drawing outrage from pilots who say the garbage will attract birds — and increase the risk of another emergency like the "Miracle on the Hudson."
A federal panel of experts has given its blessing to the trash site, where New York City garbage will be transferred from trucks to barges in sealed containers. The massive amount of trash will be less than half a mile from the airport where a US Airways jet took off last year, struck a flock of geese and glided to a Hudson River water landing.
"It's just simply not a smart place to put it," said Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the retired "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot. "I'm not opposed to these kinds of facilities, just not within 2,206 feet of one of the nation's busiest runways."
A USA TODAY review of federal regulations found that, while the trash facility is permissible under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules at LaGuardia, it would not be permitted at most of the nation's large commercial airports.

BIG BIRDS: Booming populations pose problems
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Because of a quirk in the way jets navigate to Runway 31 at LaGuardia, the zone off the end of the runway that is protected from obstructions and other dangers is smaller than at most other airports. The trash facility is just outside the protected zone at LaGuardia.

However, under FAA rules, the protection zone at nearly all large airports would have prohibited the construction of a trash facility within 2,500 feet of a runway.
Opponents say that the rule for other large airports should be applied to LaGuardia.
"The birds will behave identically, regardless of whether there is an extended (protection zone) or not," said Russell DeFusco, a wildlife biologist who formerly headed the Air Force's program to protect aircraft from birds. DeFusco, who was hired by opponents of the facility, said it should be moved elsewhere.
FAA's initial reservations
At first, the FAA expressed reservations about the trash facility, but in September 2008, the agency concluded that it would be safe after the city agreed to lower the height of the building to 100 feet. New York's Sanitation Department began construction on the facility one year ago.
Because of opposition, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood requested last year that a panel of bird experts study the plan. Their report, which was completed late last week and obtained by USA TODAY, found that the facility could safely operate as long as the city takes additional steps to drive away birds. The Sanitation Department should hire a full-time wildlife biologist to monitor the plant and make several design changes to make it less attractive to birds.
Harry Szarpanski, deputy commissioner at New York City's Sanitation Department, said that the city would follow all of the Federal Aviation Administration's requests.
The facility, which will handle an average of 2,200 tons of trash a day, is part of an ambitious program to upgrade how New York City handles its massive garbage needs. In an attempt to take as much trash off the roads as possible, the city is constructing several facilities where trash can be transferred to rail cars or barges.
New York operates a similar trash facility in nearby Staten Island, and it does not attract birds. The state-of-the-art facility is completely enclosed. No trash is loaded outside, and complex filters cut out all odors that might attract birds, according to Szarpanski.
"We feel very confident that it's not going to be any problem to the airport," he said.
'Where there's trash ...'
Opponents of the facility see it differently.
"That airport gained quite a bit of notoriety last year with the water landing on the Hudson," said Rory Kay, an airline pilot who heads the safety department of the Air Line Pilots Association, the nation's largest pilots' union. "It just highlighted the fact that where there's water, there's birds and where there's trash, there's birds. I'm quite worried about that."
DeFusco, who was hired to study the facility by local opponent Ken Paskar, said he agrees that newer designs of trash facilities are far better at keeping birds at bay.
However, he cites another FAA study of trash facilities that found that even the latest designs attract at least a handful of birds that are hazardous to aircraft.
"It just seems ridiculous that they have to build this right next to an airport," said James Ray, spokesman for another union, the US Airline Pilots Association. "I don't care how careful they are going to be. There are going to be mistakes and birds are going to be there."
 
And the airport presently is in an identical business; shipping trash (of the human variety) to further destinations where it arrives both unwelcomed by the local population, but desired due to its economic benefits. Carry on.
 
And the airport presently is in an identical business; shipping trash (of the human variety) to further destinations where it arrives both unwelcomed by the local population, but desired due to its economic benefits. Carry on.

You're an idiot
 
I thought this thread was about the Main Terminal Building at LGA :)
 

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