Opinion ID: 762018
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Prisco Landfill

Text: 3 The locus of the events giving rise to this litigation was a twenty-two acre tract of land owned by the Priscos adjacent to Route 22 in the town of Patterson, in Putnam County, New York. The property consisted of the Priscos' summer home, a barn, a pond, a small stream, a small wetlands, and a sunken area towards the rear of the land. A small ridge separates the pond from a major wetland area known as the Great Swamp. Two thousand feet to the west is the East Branch of the Croton River, which feeds into the New York City water supply system. 4 Throughout the 1980's, in addition to maintaining their small home there, the Priscos employed their property in a variety of commercial pursuits. They hosted an annual flea market with adjoining parking, leased a building to a restaurant, and leased a cottage and several trailers to residential tenants. Previously, the Priscos had leased their barn for use in a furniture-stripping operation. 5 In 1986, the Priscos learned of pending commercial development nearby. Sensing an opportunity to sell their property at an advantage, they decided first to attempt to improve the value of the land by leveling it. The cost of purchasing ordinary fill for that purpose, however, was prohibitive. 6 Fortuitously, at about this time, the Priscos were contacted by a pair of acquaintances, Bob Colandro and Walter Avasariak, about the possibility of the Priscos allowing them to dump construction and demolition material on the Priscos' land. The Priscos agreed and, sometime in the Spring of 1987, Colandro and Avasariak began operations. At the time their landfill was born, the Priscos were away on their annual winter sojourn in Florida. 7 Around May or June of 1987, Colandro and Avasariak ceased operations, apparently because the Priscos would not pay them to continue. But Avasariak introduced the Priscos to Stamford Wrecking Co., a building demolition and disposal company, which agreed to pay the Priscos $8 per cubic yard for the right to deposit construction and demolition material on their land. Stamford began operations immediately, dumping material on the Prisco property until the fall of 1987, when it decided the operation was uneconomic. By the time it discontinued the operation, Stamford had paid the Priscos approximately $100,000 for dumping rights. 8 Meanwhile, in August 1987, Lieutenant William Bubenicek, of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) Bureau of Environmental Conservation Investigation Unit, encountered the Priscos at their flea market. He later introduced the Priscos to Butch Ward, an investigator with the New York State Police, who was on medical disability leave. Bubenicek and Ward, in the course of several conversations over a period of several months, convinced the Priscos to allow their property to be used as what they were told would be a state-run construction and demolition disposal site for stone, dirt and wood. The Priscos later asked Bubenicek to memorialize their arrangement in writing. Neither he nor anyone else ever did. 9 In October 1987, Bubenicek and his immediate supervisor, Captain John Murray, met with the State's Organized Crime Task Force about the role of organized crime and corruption in the construction and demolition industry. Bubenicek told Murray that he had an informant, Ward, who was operating a site in Patterson, New York, and who was providing information about the people in the construction and demolition business, shipping and tipping costs, and the location of new sites. Bubenicek later testified that he had seen the Priscos' landfill operation over the summer and, knowing Ward's desire to get into that business, had told him about it and introduced him to the Priscos. Bubenicek told Murray also that he would be working with the task force's ongoing investigation of corruption in the construction and demolition industry. 10 The Prisco landfill, now in its third incarnation, was again operational by late October or early November 1987. Ward hired Anthony Calvello, James LaBate, and their company, AFC Transfer, to operate the landfill on a day-to-day basis. Calvello understood that Ward's role was to oversee the whole operation. Eventually, AFC Transfer would pay approximately $40,000 to a corporation owned by Ward and $180,000 to the Priscos for the right to operate the landfill. 11 In early November, the Priscos were wintering as usual in Florida. They left their property in the hands of their adult son, but he had no time for a role in the landfill's operation other than to collect and deposit checks. So Thomas Prisco prevailed upon Calvello to hire one of the Priscos' tenants, John Smith, as an equipment operator, putting Smith in a position to oversee the daily operations on the Priscos' behalf. 12 Calvello testified that when trucks arrived at the Prisco landfill, they would stop at a gate. There, Calvello would give them a ticket, determine their identity, and direct them to deposit their loads at specific locations on the property. Calvello inspected the loads as they were delivered, as did Smith, whose job it was to stand by with a bulldozer ready to form and smooth the debris once it was dumped. 13 At about this time, Lawrence Gallagher, Assistant Sanitary Engineer for DEC's local region, began to receive complaints about the Prisco landfill. He and an employee of the Putnam County Health Department inspected the landfill on December 1, 1987. They found solid waste deposited in water, a violation of New York State environmental regulations, see 6 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 360.8(a)(1) (repealed 1988), and noted that not all of the debris visible on the property constituted construction and demolition material. Gallagher reported the violation to his immediate superior, Richard Gardineer, who passed the information on to Paul Keller, DEC's regional director. Gallagher and Gardineer returned to the Prisco site together on December 11, 1987, again finding waste deposited in water. Five days later, Gallagher issued a letter to the Priscos at their New York address advising them of the violation and directing them to cease operations, cover the landfill, and seed the cover with grass in order to avoid fines and enforcement proceedings. Whether they received the letter is disputed. 14 On January 11, 1988, Director Keller sent a letter to the Priscos advising that in response to a January 7, 1988 letter from them, which they later denied they sent, he was granting an extension of twenty-four hours to clean up the site. In response to the January 11 letter, the concerned Priscos called Bubenicek, who told them not to worry, as Ward had taken care of the matter. 15 On February 5, 1988, Director Keller issued yet another letter, ordering the Priscos to cease operations immediately because of continuing violations. The Priscos again contacted Bubenicek, who assured them that the site had been shut down. 16 Upon their eventual return to New York in April 1988, the Priscos discovered that the landfill had not been leveled or covered, that materials including iron bars, other metal, wood, and even a rug were sticking up out of the ground, and that the pond had logs and other wood in it. With the assistance of Calvello, who supplied a dredging machine, and Smith, whom the Priscos hired to operate a bulldozer, the Priscos cleaned up the debris. 17 The Priscos did not hear from Bubenicek again until he reappeared on their property in the summer of 1989. At that time Bubenicek told the Priscos, to their surprise, that the landfill had been operated as a police sting operation. 18 In the fall of 1989, a wildlife pathologist with the DEC visited the Prisco landfill to investigate whether it was emitting pollutants. He saw construction debris, plastic, bits of wood, wood with paint on it, and pieces of asphalt on the ground, as well as raw waste such as wood and plastic in the wetlands area of the property. He also saw leachate leaking from the landfill into the wetlands area. He sampled the sediment and water of the wetlands area, drawing from solid material on the property, and, as a control, from a nearby lawn area that did not appear to be part of the dump. His samples were analyzed by both the New York State Health Department laboratory and an independent certified laboratory employed by the DEC. The Health Department tested for volatile substances, and found acetone, butanone, methyl ethyl ketone, and PCB's in the wetlands area water samples. These substances are all hazardous substances, under 40 C.F.R. § 302.4, for CERCLA purposes. The independent laboratory, which tested for a variety of other substances, also found elevated levels of calcium, cadmium, zinc, and lead. 19 The wildlife pathologist concluded that the wetlands are contaminated with pollutants coming from the dump, and that some of these contaminants like the PCB's are a potential threat to the health of wildlife because of the elevated levels that are present. He also said that such substances commonly are found at construction and demolition sites. 20 Two years later, in 1991, the DEC hired an independent contractor to conduct a preliminary site assessment of the property. The assessment confirmed the presence of xylenes, toluene, ethylbenzene, and acetone in the soil, and of acetone, toluene, benzene, carbon disulfide, 1,1-dichloroethane, and ethylbenzene in the groundwater. These are all hazardous substances for CERCLA purposes under 40 C.F.R. § 302.4. 21 The testimony of plaintiff's expert Charles Rich, a hydrogeologist, confirmed that leachate was continuously coming from the landfill. Rich testified also that he believed that hazardous waste, in the form of methyl ethyl ketone, acetone, PCB's, trichloroethene, and DET, were present at the Prisco landfill. He testified further that hazardous substances, in the form of vinyl chloride, methylene chloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, dichloroethane, the ethylbenzene class of compounds, and toluenes were present on the site. 22 In January 1990, the DEC sent Thomas Prisco a consent order proposing to settle the state-law violations at the landfill. The order called for the Priscos to pay a civil penalty of $805,000, $750,000 of it to be suspended contingent upon continuing compliance with the order. Prisco declined to sign it, and once more called Bubenicek. Bubenicek said that the DEC had been aware of the sting operation at the time it occurred, and that the Priscos should get a lawyer. 2