Sampling of material intended for EPCAL bike path indicates it contains lead, zinc and pesticides: town engineer

Laboratory testing of materials stockpiled on a Calverton runway for use on the EPCAL bike trail indicate that the materials exceed allowable parameters for residential uses for zinc, lead and the pesticides DDT, DDD and dieldrin. The levels do not exceed standards set for industrial uses.

That was the word Riverhead Town got today by phone from the laboratory that sampled the piles of materials being stockpiled at the EPCAL site, deputy town engineer Drew Dillingham said this evening. A full written report is expected Monday, he said.

Since the material is within acceptable parameters for industrial uses, the town may be able to use it for roadbeds, Dillingham said. But it will have to be removed from the site.

“It’s from an unregistered facility and can’t be used for the bike path,” Dillingham said.

Riverhead officials received a warning letter today from the N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation, which inspected the materials this week.  A copy of the letter was obtained by RiverheadLOCAL in a Freedom of Information Law request. The material, according to DEC engineer Syed Rahman, consists primarily of soil mixed with crushed concrete and brick.

It was brought to the EPCAL site from an unauthorized facility, according to the DEC letter. Acceptance and placement of such material directly from an unauthorized facility violates state environmental regulations and is subject to a civil penalty of up to $7,500 and an additional penalty of $1,500 per day for each day the violation continues, Rahman wrote. He warned the town against accepting additional materials from an unauthorized facility in the future.

The materials were hauled to the site last month by Riverhead Highway Department crews, according to Highway Superintendent George Woodson, who said he had an opportunity to get free aggregate mix from a facility in Calverton. He knew the town wanted to complete the EPCAL bike path and thought he’d be able to save the town about $50,000, Woodson said.

“Maybe I jumped the gun,” Woodson said in an interview today. “I thought I was doing a good thing and I take full responsibility for it.”

Woodson said he hauled the material to the EPCAL site during the week of January 19. He said after crews “hauled a few loads,” he called Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, the town board’s liaison to the alternative transportation committee, who has been working to get the bike path completed, to let her know he had gotten the free material.

“She said stop. She came up and said we had to get it inspected,” Woodson recalled.

“That same week we went to the work session to let them know we had the stuff there, just to notify them,” Woodson said.

But board members at yesterday’s work session didn’t remember the Jan. 22 work session discussion as one in which they learned that the material had already been deposited at the site.

“That’s why we authorized the testing. I didn’t realize we moved it already,” Councilman James Wooten said during yesterday’s meeting.

“That absolutely was not what the discussion was at all,” Wooten reiterated this evening.

The video recording of the Jan. 22 work session shows Giglio opening the discussion by stating, “Gio has found material we can get free for the base for the rec trail.” After Woodson responded to the supervisor’s question about what the material was, Giglio said, “We want to be able to stockpile it at EPCAL. We need to get the material now and we can start the work in the spring.”

After Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman George Gabrielsen expressed concern about the nature of the material, Giglio said, referring to contaminated materials being dumped at a Brentwood park, “We would get it tested of course because we wouldn’t want another Islip debacle, so we would get it tested.”

The supervisor said at that meeting that beyond getting it tested it would need to be specifically approved by the DEC, because of the location of the trail in environmentally sensitive lands. Giglio responded that she’d already spoken with someone at the DEC about it.

“Reach out to the DEC. Get it in writing,” Walter told Giglio. She agreed. In the ensuing discussion of where it would be stockpiled, he repeated that concern “get it in writing” three times.

Toward the end of the discussion, Woodson referred to “the material we have” and stated that his crews, along with crews from Southampton Town, “hauled for like three days.”

But board members did not respond to those statements.

“All right, so let’s write the letter [to the DEC] and see what they say,” Walter said, concluding the Jan. 22 discussion.

Walter said this week he had no idea the material was already at EPCAL until informed by Dillingham during the Monday morning department head meeting this week. He became incensed when he learned it was dumped there without first being tested and said he called the DEC and learned the town had not gotten that agency’s permission to use the material on the bike path. Giglio maintains that she has been in touch with the DEC and has had email correspondence with two DEC officials.

Giglio and Walter got into a heated interchange during yesterday’s meeting over the sequence of events and whether or not the councilwoman had been in touch with the DEC about hauling the material to the site.

Walter said he was worried about the town’s liability should testing show the materials to be hazardous waste.

“The lack of judgment is just amazing,” Walter said yesterday, “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.”

“They are not hazardous and there’s no asbestos,” Giglio said in a text message tonight after receiving word of the preliminary test results. “It’s acceptable for grading and road base, and fill as unrestricted, but restricted for other uses. And it’s way below levels of impacting our ground water,” Giglio said.