I first heard about this story from an editorial in the Press of Atlantic City.
Basically, New York City has offered to give New Jersey (out of the kindness of their golden hearts) 600 stainless steel subway cars for placement in offshore artificial reefs.
Right off the bat, I thought about the stories from Florida, where they are now attempting to retrieve discarded tires used for the same purpose, as they have found them harmful to the coral reefs in the area.
As the editorial in the Press lays out, New Jersey doesn't have any coral reefs to worry about, but there are important questions to be asked, like if the artificial reefs are creating new fish habitats, or just merely attracting fish from other areas.
Not to mention the potential environmental impacts of such a dumping.
MORE SUBWAY CARS FOR THE SEA? End dumping program
Press of Atlantic City Editorial
Ocean off N.J. likely to be last stop for subway cars
Press of Atlantic City
2 comments:
You seem to be unaware that the subway cars sunk in 1990 are still mostly intact and that the hoops the state’s artificial-reef coordinator must jump through before placing anything on the bottom are legion.
With small exceptions, our ocean bottom is a “desert” of sand. Without the 25 square miles of our reef system, it is mostly barren. Artificial reefs work. This is a proven fact.
The materials used are inspected, cleaned and transported mostly using funds from a federal excise tax on recreational fishing gear, a marine motor fuels tax and private donations. These stainless-steel subway cars, as with the Redbird subways cars before them, will be cleaned under guidelines set up by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard. We can either accept these subway cars, or watch as they sail by to be sunk in New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia.
http://www.gasdetection.com/news2/health_news_digest53.html
This was written well before your un-researched blog post. Try looking into a matter before you shoot off your personal and uneducated opinion.
Post a Comment