In government, it is better when the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. Case in point: New York City and Queens birds.
The government is killing geese that happen to have the misfortune of passing through Queens because of the danger they will get sucked into the engines of jet planes landing or taking off from LaGuardia or John F. Kennedy International airports. The dead geese will then be given to a meat packing plant and fed to the poor.
On the other hand, the city Sanitation Department is planning to build a 100-foot-tall trash transfer station in College Point. The garbage could attract pigeons and other birds. The transfer station will be close to LaGuardia’s Runway 31.
In a lawsuit seeking to block the transfer station, critics of the plan to build the transfer station say the Federal Aviation Administration reduced the “protection zone” buffer requirement around Runway 31 from 2,500 feet to about 1,700 feet in 2009 to accommodate the North Shore Marine Transfer Station to be built closer to the airport than would have been allowed.
The FAA says the move will not pose a risk to flights.
Right.
Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009 after geese took out one of the engines, told CBS Morning News he is opposed to the building of the station.
“One of the things we’ve learned is that one of the few ways to mitigate the bird problem is to not put anything near an airport runway that’s likely to attract birds,” he said. “And so putting a trash facility this close to one of the busiest runways in the nation just doesn’t make sense. It’s really a terrible idea. It should be put much farther away.”
How is it possible the city is planning to kill geese found within 5 miles of either airport and yet city officials believe it is safe to build a garbage transfer station certain to attract birds 1,500 feet from an airport runaway?
The mayor gave his assurance that the station is an enclosed facility and will not attract birds. The city can find another place to build the facility that is not less than 2,000 feet from one of the busiest airports in the world.
