Residents around Town of Minisink dirt dump are fed up

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
Print

Ehlermann with a report he says shows carcinogens in the dumped soil

(photos taken by Ehlermann)

TOWN OF MINISINK – A 37-acre plot at the end of a string of country roads in the Town of Minisink has become a depository for dirt, including construction and demolition debris of uncertain origin. 
Residents living in the area have had it.
Matt Ehlermann lives on the closest property, at the end of narrow Bowery Lane.
Onsite Wednesday afternoon, he said he is getting zero help from the
State Department of Environmental Conservation or the town.
“The town has completely shut us out.  They would give us no information.  The DEC will give us no information.  The DEC told me to not worry about it; it was safe.  Nothing; no problems whatsoever with the material.”
Ehlerman said his own tests, done professionally by an environmental company, of material dumped on the site tells a different story.  He said the results show carcinogens in what has been dumped.
Another neighbor said she has contracted two forms of cancer in recent years.  While it cannot be directly linked to the dumped debris, she is concerned. 
Attorney Michael Sussman, representing some of the residents, said he, also, is getting no reasonable response.
 “I made a FOIL request to both the DEC and to the Town of Minisink to get the full records of permits, requests for permits, information provided and supplied with those requests, including environmental reviews and that was, as I mentioned, six weeks ago and to this moment we’ve gotten no official information.”
Sussman said litigation is a definite possibility.  It could target the DEC, the town, the landowner and Logan Trucking, whose tractor-trailers have been bringing the full loads of debris and dumping it on the site. 
Ehlermann said for a time, four or five trucks a day would come to the site, at all hours, including one time, after midnight.  The frequency has decreased recently but has not stopped. 
Sussman said, however, he has learned the site’s owner recently asked the town planning board for approval to dump an additional 75,000 tons on the site.  The owner is reportedly preparing the site for a new home.
Sussman also said the town has issued but not enforced several “stop work” orders, that no certificate of occupancy has been issued for structures on the site, and no building permit has been posted. 




Popular Stories