Long Island Lemonade

When the Town of Hempstead on Long Island, NY, was told to cap the closed Merrick Landfill in 1994, Sanitation Commissioner Richard T. Ronan knew he had a problem. Ronan and the consulting engineering firm Lockwood Kessler and Bartlett Inc. (LKB) came up with a design to cap the top of the landfill and trap rainwater in 2 lined ponds on the plateau. This would keep rainwater from seeping into the buried garbage and limit runoff on the slopes. By minimizing the amount of excavation, Ronan and LKB were able to preserve and enhance the growth that nature had accomplished in the decade since the landfill closed. Taking advantage of the site's spectacular location, they created not just a park, but a unique community asset.