New York transit stops dumping in ocean

By: Phil Gregory

A program that dumped old subways cars from New York City into the ocean off New Jersey has come to the end of the line.

By: Phil Gregory
philgregorynews@Gmail.com

A program that dumped old subways cars from New York City into the ocean off New Jersey has come to the end of the line. New York transit officials gave the stainless steel subway cars to the Garden State for use as artificial reefs for marine habitat and recreational areas for divers and fishermen. And the plans originally called for 600 old subway cars to be dumped.

Listen:
[audio: 090722pgreef.mp3]

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas says 48 of the cars were placed off the coast of Atlantic City in April of last year and an inspection by divers found 46 of them broke apart in the water within a few months

Yuhas: All the scientific data that we had looked at when we decided to take the cars initially suggested that the stainless steel cars would be long lasting. Indeed the U.S. EPA had told us as long as 25 years.

Officials aren’t sure just why the subway cars deteriorated so rapidly. Plans now call for using rocks and prefabricated reef balls to create those artificial reefs.