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Showing posts with label asbestos waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asbestos waste. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Disposal Company Charged With Illegal Dumping Of Asbestos

Mazza & Sons Inc., located in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, was named in a seven-count indictment of conspiring to dump 60 million pounds of asbestos-contaminated debris at a farm containing wetlands in upstate New York.  Arrested under the indictment were Dominick Mazza, the owner of Mazza & Sons, Julius DeSimone of Rome, New York, Donald Torriero of Wellington, Florida, and Cross Nicastro II of Frankfort, New York.
The indictment describes a scheme to illegally dump thousands of tons of asbestos-contaminated, pulverized construction and demolition debris that was processed at Eagle Recycling’s and Mazza & Sons Inc.’s, New Jersey-based solid waste management facilities.  That asbestos-contaminated debris was then transported to and dumped at Cross Nicastro II’s farm in Frankfort – much of which contained federally-regulated wetlands.  Dumping and excavating operations were managed on-site by Julius DeSimone.
According to court documents, Donald Torriero and other conspirators concealed the illegal dumping by fabricating a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) permit and forging the name of a DEC official on the fraudulent permit.   Once the conspirators learned that they were under investigation, they began a systematic pattern of document concealment, alteration and destruction by destroying and secreting documents responsive to grand jury subpoenas and falsifying and submitting environmental sampling to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Back in April, NJ.com reported, Eagle Recycling of North Bergen pleaded guilty in federal court to dumping 16.2 million pounds of pulverized construction and demolition debris - including asbestos - at the site and then attempted to destroy documents to conceal it.  As part of the plea agreement, Eagle Recycling agreed to pay a criminal fine of $500,000, to implement an environmental compliance plan at its North Bergen facility, and to pay restitution that potentially includes cleanup costs.    
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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Handling Nonfriable Asbestos Waste in New York State



We recently had a question regarding how to handle nonfriable asbestos wastes (roofing materials, vinyl floor tiles, asbestos cement pipe) in New York State. The first regulations we need to review is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations, in particular the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs). NESHAPs is the regulation that regulates asbestos waste disposal on the federal level. NESHAPs would separate asbestos waste into three categories, the first category would be regulated asbestos containing materials (RACM); all friable asbestos containing materials are RACM. The second and third categories would be nonfriable organically bound materials (e.g. roofing materials and vinyl floor tiles) are Category 1 nonfriable asbestos waste and other nonfriable asbestos waste (e.g. cement pipe and transite) would be Category 2 nonfriable asbestos waste. Assuming these last two categories do not become friable during the removal, EPA NESHAPS would not regulate the disposal of these materials. Leaving the responsibility to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to regulate these materials. On January 25, 1985, NYSDEC issued a policy memorandum (for a copy of the NYSDEC memo follow the link on the title to our discussion group) regarding asbestos waste. This memo states that regulated asbestos waste includes friable asbestos material waste (Regulated Asbestos Containing Materials (RACM) under EPA NESHAPS) and control device asbestos waste. Control device asbestos waste is defined as any asbestos containing waste material that is collected in a pollution control device. Other asbestos containing waste shall be treated as construction and demolition debris.

This leaves us to decide what a pollution control device is? My view is that a pollution control device would be an asbestos labeled waste bags (as seen in the photo above) or drums. As long as you do not place nonfriable category 1 or 2 asbestos containing waste (assuming that during the removal you did not make the materials friable) into an asbestos labeled bag or drum, the waste can be disposed of as construction and demolition debris in New York State. If you have a differing opinion, please comment below or send me an email and we will post it here and in our discussion group.

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