New Jersey Company Disposes of Asbestos on NY Farm
North Bergen, New Jersey - A North Bergen, NJ-based recycling company was sentenced this week and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine for illegally dumping more than 8,000 tons of asbestos-containing construction debris on an upstate New York farm in 2006.
According to a Wall Street Journal article, the company – Eagle Recycling – along with unnamed co-conspirators, carted the debris to a farm near the Mohawk River and discarded the trash, which may have included a variety of old building materials that contained asbestos, such as shingles, tiles, insulation, and more. To cover up the crime, the company crafted a fake state permit that gave them permission to do the dumping. Allegedly, they had planned to continue dumping at the same site near the river’s flood plain for the next five years.
Earlier this year, adds the article, Eagle Recycling pleaded guilty to several violations of the Clean Water Act when they were accused of filling wetlands with debris and committing wire fraud in order to do so.
In addition to the $500,000 fine, the company has also been ordered to pay $70,000 in restitution and clean up costs.
Illegal and improper disposal of asbestos results in issues than can compromise the health and safety of the general public. In this case, asbestos may have made its way into the Mohawk River, a 149-mile-long body of water that connects with the Hudson and flows into the New York City area. Exposure to asbestos can result in a number of diseases, including mesothelioma cancer.
