bronx; and the brookfield avenue landfill across from fresh kills in staten island. the waste was dumped into trenches dug into the landfills. the waste had originated from plants owned by ford motor company, exxon, chrysler, ingersoll rand, alcan aluminum, and others, including the ford stamping plant in buffalo, new york. in march 1982 kenneth mansfield, a plant manager and truck driver for an oil refining and disposal company operating in the metropolitan area, pled guilty to federal charges of conspiracy concerning the dumping. mansfield and company owner russell w. mahler later pleaded guilty in new jersey district court for dumping oil and chemical wastes into the hudson river. mahler also pled guilty to disposing of waste oil in the abandoned butler mine tunnel in butler township, pennsylvania, which in 1979 overflowed into the susquehanna river. he was sentenced to one year in prison for the crime. the mine would later become a superfund site. mahler's firm had also received contracts to clean up some of the sites that it had previously contaminated with oil, including one in college point. in 1982, new york city spent $2.5 million to clean up the company's long island city plant, located near the greenpoint avenue bridge just north of newtown creek. in 1985, the city filed suit under the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act (a.k.a. the federal superfund act) against the 14 companies who originally generated the toxic waste later dumped in the city landfills. in february 1983, nearly 3,000 55-gallon metal drums of waste were discovered inside the edgemere landfill.: 39 the drums were discovered in the "neck" area of the peninsula just south of the main landfill,: 36 when a tractor spreading dirt struck the drums by accident. while most of the drums were empty, many contained lead-based paint and resin. the drums were said to have been buried beginning in 1968, around 15 years prior, when there were fewer regulations concerning the disposal of chemicals. following the discovery, the new york city department of environmental protection began testing the air, soil, and ground water of the local area for runoff from the drums. that month, the landfill was designated a superfund site.: 50 on may 18, 1983, the toxics project of the new york public interest research group released a report documenting the dumping of chemical toxic waste at city landfills from 1964 to 1979. the year-long study covered the edgemere landfill in queens, the pennsylvania and fountain landfills in brooklyn, the tallapoosa/pelham bay landfill in the bronx, and the fresh kills and brookfield avenue landfills in staten island, based on unreleased dsny internal records. it concluded that "hundreds of tons" of chemical wastes had been deposited at the landfills with the permission of the sanitation department, which had been legal until 1979, along with the illegal dumping of "millions of pounds" of toxic wastes such as waste oil. it also confirmed the use of oil at the landfills to control dust, which occurred weekly for six months in each year. this oil was contaminated waste product. the study further concluded that the landfills were not designed to contain chemical wastes, and violated state and federal regulations. in 1984, the edgemere landfill was listed by the new york state department of environmental conservation (nysdec) among 895 hazardous-waste sites in the state and among 144 that required top priority to be cleaned up. that year, the city began negotiations with the state to close the edgemere and fountain avenue landfills. in 1985, it was anticipated that the edgemere landfill would close the next year. by december, however, the department of sanitation began negotiating with the nysdec to obtain a permit in order to keep the landfill open. in february 1986, the department of sanitation announced that the edgemere landfill would operate for an additional 21 years until 2007, pending the approval of the nysdec. the dsny argued that the landfill only took in 550 tons of garbage daily, compared to the 22,000 tons accepted by fresh kills. they stated that only waste from the rockaways would be dumped at the landfill. the move to keep the landfill open was opposed by queens borough president claire shulman. closing and capping of the landfill in july 1987, the city reached an agreement with the new york state department of environmental conservation to close the landfill by 1991, unless a permit could be awarded to the landfill. under the agreement, landfill operations could continue until july 1991 while the state conducted an investigation of the site. dumping in the area where the waste drums were discovered, however, was banned. by this time, the landfill's daily intake of garbage was increased to around 1,000 tons of garbage. by comparison, fresh kills landfill received 23,500 tons daily. with the eventual closure of edgemere and fresh kills imminent, the city planned to replace the landfills with several "resource recovery facilities" in the future. this included waste-to-energy incinerators, one of which would be located at the brooklyn navy yard, which would generate electricity from burning garbage. in addition, gas recovery plants to extract methane would be created at several inactive landfills including fresh kills and pelham bay. in december 1987, local community groups and politicians filed suit to have the landfill shut down, citing the fact that the landfill was operating without a permit. at the time, it was referred to as the "most toxic landfill in the world" due to the historical dumping of oil and chemicals. it was also stated that 167,000 gallons of toxic liquid seeped from the landfill on a daily basis. it was compared to the love canal landfill, another superfund site located in niagara falls. in 1989, edgemere handled over 1,500 tons of city garbage on a daily basis, making up 7.6 percent of the city's waste. in comparison, 4.4 percent of the city's waste was burned in city-owned incinerators, 8.1 percent was disposed of in apartment incinerators, and 73.4 percent (14,000 tons per day) was taken to fresh kills landfill in staten island. in march 1990, the city and state began removing 7,000 drums of toxic waste from the edgemere landfill. that year, the department of sanitation's bureau of waste prevention, reuse and recycling (bwprr) began a pilot composting program at the edgemere landfill, handling 1,000 tons of leaves. another composting facility would be opened that year at fresh kills. the edgemere landfill was closed on schedule in july 1991. this left fresh kills landfill as the city's only landfill, joined by six municipal incinerators and the city's growing recycling program. by this time, the president of the bayswater civic association had nicknamed the landfill "mount edgemere". this was similar to the "mount corona" nickname given to a 90-foot (27 m) mound of ash in the former corona ash dumps, now the site of flushing meadows–corona park. following its closure, the new york city department of environmental protection assumed responsibility for the cleanup of the site and other former landfills. 75 percent of cleanup costs would be covered by the new york state superfund program. the closure of the edgemere landfill, and the previous decommissioning of the pennsylvania avenue and fountain avenue landfills, helped to reduce the bird strike hazard at jfk airport. in summer 1992 the new york city department of city planning released the new york city comprehensive waterfront plan, which sought to improve and expand the waterfront parkland within the city including the area around jamaica bay.: 5 : i−xi the plan urged the dsny and department of environmental protection to develop a containment plan for the edgemere landfill, which should include "innovative bio-technology approaches".: 39 (pdf p. 57) it also sought to create additional parkland in edgemere, and preserve the wetlands along the sommerville and conch basins.: 39−40, 224−225 (pdf p. 57−58, 242−243) in july 1992, a $30.4 million settlement with over 100 corporations and public entities was reached in the 1985 superfund lawsuit over dumping at edgemere landfill and four other city landfills. it was the fourth settlement reached under that suit. capping of the edgemere landfill began in september 1995, which would permanently seal the site. the landfill was covered with a 6-inch base of topsoil, an impermeable geomembrane used to contain gasses emitted from the landfill, a layer of clay, and a second layer of topsoil. the uppermost layer of soil contained spartina grass. the landfill was graded with a 4 percent slope to allow optimal storm runoff. 700,000 cubic yards (540,000 m3) of topsoil for the capping project were brought to the site by barges, as officials from queens community board 14 requested the use of the barges instead of trucks. a pier was constructed in the sommerville basin to accept the topsoil; this was later converted into the fishing piers. rock-covered channels were created circumscribing the landfill to prevent erosion. a gas extraction and flaring system was constructed in order to collect the gas emitted from the landfill, which would then be used as fuel or sold. the flaring system was used to control odor, the first such system for a landfill in the city. it had been estimated in 1991 that the methane produced by the landfill could provide heat for over 100,000 homes. in the neck area of the site where the drums were discovered, a groundwater "pump and treat" well system was installed to decontaminate the area. the capping project was completed in 1997 at the cost of $40 million. afterwards, a 15-year monitoring period began to regulate the gasses emitted by the landfill. 2000s by march 2000, the nysdec declassified the landfill as a class 2 site ("significant threat to the public health or environment") and reclassified it as a class 4 site ("site properly closed-requires continued management"). it was expected at this time that the site would need 10 to 15 years of monitoring and management to fully close the site. the landfill was declared "cleaned of all toxins" by the dec in 2003. at the time it was one of two superfund sites in the rockaways, along with a former long island lighting company coal gasification plant at beach 108th street in rockaway park.: 50 in may 2007, the parks department designated rockaway community park, bayswater park, and beach channel west park in belle harbor as parks with off-leash areas for dogs. in 2009, queens community board 14 district manager jonathan gaska proposed using the edgemere landfill as a solar panel field. the proposal was suggested to the long island power authority (lipa), which provides electricity to the rockaways. it was supported by new york state assemblywoman audrey pheffer. on october 19, 2013, twenty thousand trees and five thousand shrubs were planted at rockaway community park by volunteers as part of the park's department's milliontreesnyc program, the largest planting event in the program's history. the trees would act as a buffer for a future storm, and were planted in response to hurricane sandy in 2012. the project was supported by the ny/nj super bowl host committee for super bowl xlviii, which was to be played in february 2014, along with the national football league themselves and verizon. the project replaced invasive species with trees native to coastal environments.: 32 in 2016, interns with the rockaway waterfront alliance discovered a population of diamondback terrapin turtles in the former landfill. rockaway parks conceptual plan empty recreational facilities within rockaway community park. the park is underutilized due to the presence of mosquitoes. in may 2014, the new york city department of parks and recreation released the rockaway parks conceptual plan, which proposed several upgrades to parks on and around the peninsula following hurricane sandy in 2012. the plan included a major renovation of rockaway community park.: 32 the existing recreational facilities along almeda avenue would be upgraded, with a "gaming area" featuring ping pong and shuffleboard to be added. the gaming area would replace the existing handball courts in the center of the park, while new handball courts would be erected on the adjacent small playground. additional handball courts would be erected on a portion of the current tennis courts at the far east end of the park. the open grass areas at the far south end of the park would be converted into picnic and barbecuing areas.: 32−34 the three natural areas on the