By:Jeff Lipton
Contaminated soil from Woodmere synagogue site unloaded in IP
The owner of a Merrick construction company has been charged with dumping contaminated soil from a Woodmere construction site where a synagogue is being built onto land in Island Park where new homes were being constructed, authorities said.
Steven Saggese, 31, of Wynsum Avenue and owner of Annex Construction Company, was arrested July 11 by investigators from the Nassau County District Attorney's Office. Saggese operates his business from his Merrick home, officials said.
Authorities said Saggese was a sub-contractor responsible for excavating and removing soil from Woodmere Boulevard and Woodmere Place, where a synagogue is being built for Congregation Aish Kodesh.
Soil contaminated with petroleum oil from abandoned underground storage tanks was removed from the Woodmere site and transported to Island Park. Two piles were unloaded at a construction site along a canal on Julian Place, apparently to be used as fill around the foundation of three houses being built there. The houses have been completed and two have been sold.
Another pile was dumped in an empty lot on Beach Avenue, which is used by Annex Construction to store its vehicles, officials said. Steven Saggese's father is said to own property, which he leases out to a jet ski rental place, a short distance from the site.
Despite the DA's allegations, Vinny Garrito, a co-owner of Bridge Auto Body, which is next to the lot, said, he never saw any large amounts of dumping taking place at the site. However, he did say that the lot was being used by Saggesse for the past three or four years, and he often saw the large trailers being cleaned of loose piles of sand, rocks and dirt.
About 1,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil was found at the Woodmere construction site and about a couple of hundred cubic yards were taken to each of the two Island Park locations, said Bill Fonda, a spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The DEC and DA's office received a tip Nov. 22 from an anonymous source about the contaminated soil being transported and disposed of illegally, and an investigation was launched, officials said.
Information was brought to our attention and we went and investigated, said Rick Hinshaw, a DA spokesperson. We tested the soil and the air at the Woodmere site and located places it was being dumped. We tested the soil, and contaminated soil was being dumped.
When two houses were demolished in November to make way for the new synagogue and its parking lot, two storage tanks leaking oil were discovered. The tanks had been abandoned by a previous owner and possibly had been leaking over time, Fonda said. Congregation Aish Kodesh had no knowledge of the leaking tanks or the plan to dump the contaminated soil, officials at the DA's office said. Construction on the synagogue was originally expected to be completed by GII Construction of Wantagh in the fall. The construction company has not been implicated with wrongdoing. In the meantime, the synagogue's congregants have been meeting at 353 Woodmere Blvd.
The piles of dirt were scooped up and taken away to the sites in Island Park, Fonda said.
Investigators said Saggese should have hired a company that handles contaminated soil, which would then transport the soil to properly dispose of it. But this can be costly and Saggese allegedly took the inexpensive way out, officials said.
The Woodmere location and the two Island Park sites were cleaned up in mid-December by R3 Technologies of Morrisville, Pa., at the expense of the Woodmere property owner, authorities said.
There's no hazard left, Fonda. All three sites have been cleaned up. There's no danger and no groundwater contamination.
Bob Owens, assistant district attorney of the DA's Criminal Frauds Bureau, said, The theory is with contaminated soil petroleum, if you place it in the ground where the homes are being built, it could have leeched into the surface or the groundwater.
Saggese was charged with one count of endangering public health, safety or the environment in the third degree, a class E felony punishable by up to four years in prison. He also was charged with one count of unlawful release of solid waste into the environment, an A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
DA Denis Dillon said, These were serious violations of the state's Environmental Conservation Law. In particular, the potential use of this contaminated soil as clean fill around new homes on Julian Place could have jeopardized the drinking water and polluted the adjacent canal.
Saggese was arraigned July 11 in First District Court in Hempstead and released on his own recognizance. He did not return Herald phone calls, and his attorney, who was on vacation, could not be reached for comment. He has no prior record, officials said.
