ABSTRACT
Fountain Avenue Landfill (FAL) is a 297-acre site located on the north shore of Jamaica Bay, south of the Belt Parkway and west of Kennedy Airport. FAL, Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill (PAL) just west of FAL, Jamaica Bay and parts of the surrounding area make up the Gateway National Recreation Area. FAL received waste from New York City for twenty-five years. It opened in late 1961, about the same time the Pennsylvania Avenue site was closed, and over the years received both municipal and commercial waste. A number of tests and surveys have been carried out on the air, water and sediments surrounding the two landfills. High levels of metals have been measured in leachate samples from FAL as well as the surface water surrounding FAL and PAL. Due to the large number of equilibrium states and chemical complexity of the problems at FAL, further work is necessary before the environmental hazards posed by FAL can be fully characterized and evaluated.
