This morning I made it to Bayfront Park in Menlo Park. I used to go running there regularly in my life prior to nursing school. It seems like an eternity ago.
Bayfront Park’s 160 acres extend over the area of a solid waste landfill that was closed in 1984. It is located on a small peninsula, surrounded by salt ponds and salt sloughs of the bay on three sides. The forth side adjoins to an industrial area of the city and the highway on-ramp.
As I was taking an unhurried walk today, stopping every now and then to take a photo, I tried to imagine this place full of serenity and life covered in trash. This required quite a mental stretch. Although there are plenty of signs of the surrounding industry—smoking chimney stacks in the far, huge storage and office buildings closer by—the landfill is visible only to the discerning eye.
I always wondered why there was a small sewage treatment plant at the far end of the park. Its extremely noisy machinery had annoyed me many times as I was passing by. So did the foul stench of what smelled like rotten organic material mixed with manure that often filled the air. Both of these nuisances used to have the fantastic side effect of making me run much faster at about halfway through the perimeter trail, just to get away into an olfactory neutral zone.
It was just today that it finally clicked! I read a very well written article about how a landfill works. Of course, the responsibility for a waste dump doesn’t stop when it is capped with soil, and brush and trees are planted. The smelly sewage at the plant in the far back of the park is a penetrating reminder of the very existence of this man-made pile of junk. What is collecting in the pond near the noisy pump station is leachate from the landfill that is drained through pipes, then tested and detoxified if needed. The smell that surrounds the area stems from methane gas which, mixed with CO2, is emitted from the activity of anaerob bacteria, working hard at slowly decomposing what once was dragged to our curbs.
The city of Menlo Park budgets more than $225,000 per year just to maintain the landfill and keep the surrounding ecosystems intact. This does not include any costs for the maintenance of the recreational part of the park. Millions of dollars to keep an enormous pile of garbage under control? That is quite perplexing. I guess we can call ourselves lucky, that at least this junk was not dumped into the ocean to add on to the ever-growing pacific gyre, but instead is taken care of in our very own backyard.
Yet, one can’t deny that this landfill contributes considerable recreational value to the area. Runners, walkers, bikers, dog owners, bird watchers, artists, model plane pilots, kite flyers, backyard gardeners who shovel buckets full of free compost soil, people looking for solitude, as well as noisily chit-chatting groups that enjoy each others’ company—there seems to be a place for everyone. I have always found mine whenever I came.
Thinking back, I actually grew up close to a similar construct—der Gruene Heiner. About a ten minute drive from my childhood home in Germany, this popular 230 feet high green destination towers over the otherwise mostly flat landscape. It was built back in the 1950’s—from WW2 debris. Today people enjoy its recreational value. In 1999 a windmill-powered plant was added to its summit and has been providing green energy ever since.
While I would prefer to walk on natural grounds that were aggregated by California’s overactive tectonic, I can hardly turn my back on an issue as big as Western societies' overactive consumerism with all of its unattractive side-effects, such as giant landfills. Yet, one has to give credit to humankind’s creativity and problem solving skills. Turning a pile of crap into an area of recreational value is truly a masterpiece--a masterpiece that many people enjoy regularly for exercise and stress relief, and thus maintenance of good health.
To say it in the words of Albert Einstein:
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
Ute, this post was your best yet. Honestly, it's been hard to think of a comment worthy enough to add to the conversation. Your work here fits right in with the eco-yoga-culture-healthy living theme you have going in your blog PERFECTLY. It is a subject that concerns us all, whether we are aware of it or not. I was not. I had no idea about this park or its history, and now I am even thinking about taking my clients there next week on a sunny day for a little lesson in green living and the burden we all share. We need more posts like this in the future. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!! :) This park is such an interesting place, and the post was fun to write.
ReplyDeleteBayfront Park would be an ideal place for you clients--recreational and educational at once. Have fun!