CORRECTION: A City of Ithaca elected official denies any connection between the cleanup and the ribbon cutting event at the Chamber of Commerce, with a lack of snow cited as providing an opportunity for the site to be remediated. The story is updated.
City of Ithaca Department of Public Works performed a cleanup of an abandoned drug encampment last Wednesday, January 18th. The site remains contaminated, with heavy equipment used in the cleanup turning syringes and other debris into the soil.
An estimated 25 tons of waste was removed from the site to be processed by Tompkins County Recycling and Materials Management. Recycling and Materials Management director Barbara Eckstrom expressed a hope that future cleanups would include participation from experts in medical waste disposal. City of Ithaca Department of Public Works staff are not trained to handle medical waste.
More than two dozen syringes were found to still be littering the area, along with blue distilled water ampoules and Narcan nasal spray. The syringes, water ampoules and Narcan are distributed to drug users in the Jungle by local “harm reduction” organizations.
Innumerable syringes had accumulated at the site of the encampment by the inlet, a long standing Open Drug Scene. Open drug scenes are gatherings of drug users who publicly consume and deal drugs.
The site had previously been occupied by a makeshift structure that burned down in November of 2022.
The cleanup coincidentally occurred the same day as a ribbon cutting at the new Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, with the eyesore of the Jungle clearly visible from the parking lot. The cleanup began the morning of the ribbon cutting, with further work continuing into the following days.
Additional photographs of the cleanup’s aftermath are available below. You can read Ithaca Crime’s previous coverage of the cleanup here.
