A NO COST, BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE FOR FLOATABLES CONTROL IN NEW YORK CITY

摘要

Through an innovative program to coordinate existing efforts of its Departments ofEnvironmental Protection and Sanitation, the City of New York has improved its abilityto control one source of floatables and possibly other pollutants to New York Harbor.This 揑llegal Dumping Notification Program?provides a framework for cooperationbetween previously uncoordinated efforts of two City Departments and, as such,represents a true best management practice. In short, the program takes advantageof one City Department抯 field presence to garner and transmit valuable information toanother City Department for enforcement and cleanup. Best of all, the program isoperating at virtually no additional cost to the City. Although the program has beenactive only about a year as of June 1999, the information collected to date hasalready formed a valuable resource for the City to monitor and curtail illegal dumpingactivity. In its first few months, the program was directly responsible for initiating actionthat is anticipated to reduce the number of illegal dumping sites by 15 percent. It isfurther anticipated that as the program is refined, it could be expanded to utilize anumber of other government and private entities in a cooperative, 搉eighborhoodwatch?network. Other cities may find this New York City program to be a usefulmodel to address illegal dumping or other similar activities.