Walter, Giglio in shouting match over unauthorized EPCAL bike path material that must be removed from site

An attempt by Riverhead town officials to inexpensively finish the bike path at EPCAL has apparently backfired — and touched off a shouting match between the town supervisor and a council member at today’s town board work session.

About a month ago, Town Highway superintendent George Woodson transported between 100-200 yards of material from a materials facility on Nugent Drive to the Calverton Enterprise Park in hopes that it could be used to help finish the bike path there.

The material was offered for free – which could save the town between $30,000 and $40,000, Woodson said – but there was a limited amount of time during which the material was available for him to make a decision.

“I thought I was doing the right thing for the town,” Woodson said.

The material, however, was not obtained from a state DEC-approved recycler, which is required for materials to be used in a public park. So the town must now remove the material from the site, according to Supervisor Sean Walter.

Walter said DEC officials told him that when he contacted them earlier this week upon finding out that the material had been stockpiled there. The DEC is sending the town a warning letter, advising the town to remove the material right away, Walter said.

The material was intended for use as a base for asphalt paving. The county awarded Riverhad Town $200,000 in December to help extend the paved portion of the path. Councilwoman Jodi Giglio told RiverheadLOCAL at the time that she and Woodson were working on getting RCA base material donated, which would allow the county funding to stretch further — and maybe even complete the 8.9 mile loop around the former Grumman plant.

Material was not supposed to be delivered there without a permit, Walter said.

Giglio agrees and says that as soon as Woodson told her he was in the process of moving the material, she told him to stop. She said she did not remember the date that happened. But by the time Woodson called her, about 20 truckloads of material had already been dumped on the EPCAL runway, according to the councilwoman.

Woodson said he can bring the material back to the supplier’s site, but Walter — who characterized the material as “mud and garbage” not RCA base — said the town can’t transport the material until it detrmines through lab testing that it’s not contaminated.

“We can’t knowingly or unwittingly transport contaminated material,” he said. “And we can’t bring it back to where it came from unless that facility has proper permits.”

The town hired a laboratory to take samples of the material at EPCAL for testing. The results of those tests, which cost the town $3,150, will be in next week, Walter said.

“If the material is bad, we own it,” Walter said.

Should the test results indicate the town can’t use the material for road base outside the park, the town “may have to dispose of it as garbage,” Walter said, which will cost about $85 a ton, he said. He estimated there are about 230 cubic yards of the stuff at EPCAL. One cubic yard probably weighs about a ton, depending on the material, he said. So the town’s disposal bill will likely be about $19,000.

If the material is contaminated and must be disposed of as hazardous waste, disposal costs would be much, much higher, Walter said.

“The problem is, we don’t know where it came from,” Walter said.

“This stuff is jagged aluminum, roof shingles, brick, glass, ceramic,” Walter said. “You would never in good conscience put this in a bike path anyway.”

Town board members argued loudly today at the town board work session about who was to blame for the dumping.

“I take full responsibility,” Woodson said. “If you want to blame somebody, blame me for trying to do the right thing.”

But when Giglio told the rest of the town board that she had called the DEC directly after finding out that Woodson was moving the material, Walter accused her of lying.

“That’s a revision of the truth,” Walter said.

“Are you telling me that I am lying, Sean?” Giglio said.

“I am,” he replied.

“Well, you’re wrong,” she said. “You’re absolutely incorrect. I have the emails.”

“I’d like to see them,” Walter said.

Giglio said this afternoon she has a string of emails “back and forth” with DEC personnel.

“Ken Testa [Riverhead town engineer] was supposed to be working on the permits,” Giglio said in a phone interview.

“When Gio [Woodson] called to say he was dumping the materials at EPCAL, I was like, ‘Whoa, Gio, don’t do that.’ I made him stop. I told him we needed to get Ken Testa there to show us where it could go and tell us where to get it tested,” Giglio said.

“Ken was including the material in the bike path permit applications,” she said.

Walter disputes Giglio’s version of events, suggesting that the councilwoman is looking to make Testa a scapegoat. Walter said he spoke to the town engineer after today’s work session and learned that Testa got price estimates for sampling the material on Jan. 16 — and the material was already there at that time. Walter said the town engineer has written price quotes dated Jan. 16.

“Yet when we discussed this at the Jan. 22 work session, the councilwoman doesn’t let on to the board that material has already been deposited there. She was talking about bringing it there when in reality it already was there.”

Walter said the bottom line is the town had no way of knowing where the material came from or what’s in it when it dumped the material at the enterprise park.

Woodson said the material was produced at the Calverton materials site, not imported in. “I saw them making it,” he said.

Walter said the material being produced at the Calverton materials site was “entirely different,” good quality aggregate mix. “This isn’t aggregate. It’s garbage, it’s construction debris.”

“It was done in good faith,” Woodson said, adding that other towns, including Southampton and Southold, took some of the free material too.

“The lack of judgment is just amazing,” Walter said, “when you consider all that’s gone on at Roberto Clemente Park in Islip. It’s just astounding that we could be put in this position.”

The town park in Brentwood, Town of Islip was discovered last year to have about 50,000 tons of illegally dumped contaminated debris on site. The park was shut down as a result. Six people, including the former parks commissioner were indicted in connection with the illegal dumping.

Katie Blasl contributed reporting.

Correction: A previously published version of this story incorrectly identified the point of origin of the material stockpiled at EPCAL.