What to do with decommissioned seventeen-ton subway cars? Why, dump them along the Eastern Seaboard to create an artificial reef, of course!
New York City’s Mass Transit Authority approved a $6.3 million contract to submerge 600 stainless steel subway cars off the east coast, from New Jersey down to Delaware. The cars will accommodate schools of fish and provide divers with some unique scenery.
"They create a cave-like structure that let young hatchlings mature," said Mike Zacchea, assistant chief of operations for New York City Transit. "Within 30 days, marine life attaches to the car body."
The controversial aspect of this program is what makes it so financially appealing to the MTA: the cars contain asbestos, which would cost the agency an additional $27 million to remove before sending the metal to scrap.
The New Jersey environmental department wasn’t so sure that dumping asbestos into the ocean was a good thing. Another 1,000 retired cars are on deck for off-shore installment. These will be on hold until the environmental department can further study the impact of the cars.
According to am New York, these aren’t the first cars to be dumped in the ocean. 250 “no. 7 line Redbird” cars were deposited in 2001.
While this story doesn’t paint such a rosy, or green, picture of subways, keep in mind that the waste/pollution associated with these 40 year-old cars represents a fraction of the environmental costs tangled up with all the car-trips they were able to replace and the refuse accompanying our car-consumption.
Via am New York.
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I just bought an Altima last year, great car btw. I agree that hearing it from the higher powers of a huge company is great.
I am not laughing. Some automobile executive tests out some prediction in order to see how it plays on the EcoBlogosphere. I am not impressed. Maybe Japan and the U.S. are not big growth markets for private cars… the planet is huge and billions are still yearning for a car, and Nissan etc. will give it to them if they can.