Two Men Dump Asbestos-Contaminated Material into NY River
by Alisha Mims
Two men were convicted of dumping thousands of tons of asbestos-contaminated material at a piece of land located on the Mohawk River in upstate New York. The Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that Donald Torriero and Julius DeSimone were sentenced in federal court in Utica, NY on Friday for conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act, the Superfund statute, wire fraud, and to defrauding the United States.
According to the press release, Torriero and DeSimone conspired to cover the entire piece of property, over the course of five years, with construction and demolition debris that had been processed at New Jersey solid waste management facilities and then transported to the open property in Frankfort, NY. The scheme was discovered just months after the operation began, but the men had already dumped an estimated 400 truckloads of contaminated debris at the site.
Much of the material was dumped in and around water, and some of the construction and demolition material was found to be contaminated with asbestos.
The two men went so far as to forge a permit letter, which they used to dump the contaminated debris at the Mohawk River site. Torriero and DeSimone attempted to conceal their illegal activities by committing more criminal acts. They fabricated a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) permit, on which they forged the name of DEC official.
Read more at http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/08/two-men-dump-asbestos-contaminated-material-into-ny-river/