Dumping Subway Cars in the Ocean... ?

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When you first hear that hundreds of retired subway cars are being dumped along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, you'd probably think that some foul play is involved. But in this case, these old New York City subway cars are actually getting a second chance on the ocean floor - helping to revive habitats and restore damaged ecosystems.

This "dumping for good" practice is surprisingly widely adopted and largely under reported. It's a unique recycling strategy that helps to solve multiple problems simultaneously. First, it's tough to find a home for retired subway cars. These huge 18-ton hunks of metal pose a storage problem. They are huge voids, are costly to recycle and take up a lot of space wherever they end up (usually a junk yard). Second, the Atlantic Coast has suffered from dramatic habitat loss over the last century. A mix of pollution and coastal activity have destroyed a once thriving environment. Underwater soil erosion has left barren sandy fields with little topography. Subway cars act as surprisingly attractive surfaces for new reef culture to latch onto.

"They (subway cars) are three dimensional, and provide thousands and thousands of square feet of hard surface for invertebrates to live on, some of which, such as blue mussels, could not live on the sand bottom that is naturally there. When you compare the amount of food available on this reef to the natural amount, there is 400 times as much food per square foot as the sand bottom." - Jeffrey Tinsman (Artificial reef program manager at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control)

Photographs (including thumbnail) by Stephen Mallon. (Source.)

Photographs by Rich Galiano. (Source.)

A Shelter for New Habitat

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You could say that these subway cars are providing a vehicle for new life on the ocean floor ;) Or something along those lines.

These subway cars are clearly impacting the habitats in a positive way. At a surprising pace, they are allowing aquatic flora and fauna to return. I'm still very curious about the long-term effect of eroded metals on this ecosystem. But for the moment, this seems to be a productive medium.

Photograph of "a subway car after 5 years underwater" by Stephen Mallon. (Source.)

Not All Junk is Created Equal...

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Not all junk will do good for the ocean floor! When you see subway cars, that doesn't mean anything with surface area will be a productive addition for a struggling habitat.

Here's one horrifying example... In 1972, a staggering 700,000 rubber tires were dumped on top of the Osbourne Reef outside of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. By 1974, A total of 2 million tires became part of a aquatic restoration project that went horribly wrong. The coral and local flora didn't take to the rubbery / slippery surface of the tires. What began as a project with good intentions ended up causing a nightmare of a restoration project that is still active 45 years later.

Artificial reef fail. The "tire reef" in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. (Source.)

The bottom line : our coastal ecosystems are fragile, important and worth protecting. Discovering ways of utilizing abandoned material / resources can be a productive way to reinvigorate lost habitat. Surely, subway cars are not the only (certainly not the best) solution. Going forward, I will be curious to see what creates the best and most sustainable impact.

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