State DEC finds illegal waste facility selling bogus topsoil

A dump truck loaded with alleged unlawful fill material photographed on the property. NYS DEC photo

By JEFF MORRIS

A joint investigation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Westchester County Solid Waste Commission has led to the discovery of an illegal dumping and transfer facility in Lewisboro.

Environmental Conservation police officers, Daniel Franz and Dylan Schuck, arrived at the location April 10 after being notified of the violation by the Westchester commission.

According to a report in “ECOs on Patrol” — a bi-weekly feature on the NYSDEC website highlighting cases encountered by ECOs across New York state — the officers observed a dump truck being loaded with illegal fill material consisting of soil, asphalt, cement, plastic, lumber and glass. 

“The ECOs also observed large piles of illegal fill on the property amounting to approximately 30,000 cubic yards and heavy machinery, including a commercial soil screener and two large excavators,” said the report.

NYSDEC reported that the ECOs interviewed the property owner and learned the subject was transporting construction and demolition debris from construction sites in Connecticut to the Lewisboro location, processing the illegal fill material with the soil screener, and selling it as “clean topsoil from a farm.”

The officers issued tickets to the trucking company for waste transporter violations, said NYSDEC, as well as to the property owner for unlawful disposal of solid waste and operating an unauthorized solid waste management facility. They also provided the subject with “pertinent information to help begin the process of becoming registered and compliant with DEC’s solid waste rules and regulations.”

Though NYSDEC did not reveal the property’s location, The Recorder reached out to Lewisboro Supervisor Tony Gonçalves, who said the address is 225 Smith Ridge Road. That property on Route 123 is next door to Valley View Greenhouses, but they are not connected.

According to Gonçalves, the town building department issued a stop work order on Friday, April 25, because “they do not have a special use permit to operate that facility.” 

Aerial images obtained from the county GIS Municipal Tax Parcel Viewer show some type of earth-moving operations taking place in the rear of the property going back at least 25 years. Asked whether the owner ever had a permit to operate there, Gonçalves said he did not know, but “they should since they are operating in a residentially-zoned property.”

Gonçalves said he was not informed by either the state or the county ahead of time about the investigation, and in fact only learned about it from a news report and seeing it mentioned in the DEC’s email newsletter. He said he was only able to obtain information by speaking with the executive director of the County Solid Waste Commission. A NYSDEC spokesperson told The Recorder that DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement does not typically inform local municipalities of every case it is investigating.  

Though the DEC report referred to the officers interviewing the property owner, the spokesperson declined to provide any more information or say whether the owner was at the site, saying only, “DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement does not disclose subject’s names, addresses, or other personal information for ongoing/open cases.” Tax records list the property owner as Smith Ridge Farm LLC.

Asked whether they had any information as to how long the illegal activity had been taking place, the spokesperson responded, “DEC’s investigation into this case is ongoing.”

Questions to the county solid waste commission office about how they were tipped off about the operation, leading to their contacting NYSDEC, were not answered by press time.