Felony plea could affect Harlem River site
For 15 years, earth movers have shifted mountains of rock and gravel on a site on the Harlem River just south of the 145th Street Bridge. Some day, the city hopes, that site will become a waterfront park, an extension of Mill Pond Park to the north.
Now a guilty plea to felony charges of illegal dumping by the company that owns the site could bring that day closer.
To settle the charges, Bronx County Recycling, which turns asphalt and concrete construction debris and dirt dug up on construction sites into gravel, stone and sand has agreed to stop handling construction and demolition debris in New York State.
The agreement, along with a guilty plea from the company’s owner, ends a case brought by the state attorney general in 2010, charging the company and owner Sal Cascino with filing false documents to hide the illegal disposal of solid waste in upstate Columbia County. The 2010 indictment followed earlier charges and a court-enforced promise from the company to stop dumping.
“This recycler dumped dangerous construction debris and then routinely filed false reports with the state to hide his crime,” said then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office brought the charges after an investigation by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Asbestos was among the materials disposed of, the state agency found.
On July 3, Cascino pleaded guilty to one count of Offering a False Instrument in the Second Degree, a class E felony, and agreed to pay a $20,000 fine, along with a $5,000 penalty stemming from the earlier accusations against him.
Bronx County Recycling signed an administrative order that prohibits it from engaging in its core business, recycling construction and demolition debris.
The penalty will severely restrict the company’s ability to function. In an email response to a question from the Herald, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Conservation, Lori Severino, wrote, “This order does not necessarily put them out of business. What it does do is prevent the company from illegal management of wastes. It does not prevent them from taking in wood pallets, so that is not a portion of the business affected by this order.”
The receptionist who answered the phone at Bronx County Recycling on July 5 said Cascino no longer owned the business. When asked who did, she said a man named Eric, whose last name she didn’t know.
The new owner did not respond to messages seeking comment.
A change in ownership makes no difference, said Severino. “The plea agreement involves The Bronx County Recycling, LLC, not Cascino himself. The company can not operate in the processing of this material.”
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