Investigations into the cause and impacts of a fire that destroyed a Calverton solid waste handling facility last Wednesday remain ongoing, officials say.
The facility’s buildings that house incoming solid waste and processing activities —including the 21,500-square-foot main building — were “completely destroyed by the fire” and have been deemed unsafe for use, entry, or occupancy, according to a statement Tuesday afternoon by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which regulates the operation of solid waste facilities.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, a Suffolk County Police Department spokesperson said this morning. The county police department’s arson squad is investigating.
The blaze erupted at about 2 a.m. on June 4 and quickly spread throughout the main building, Riverhead Fire Department Chief Piotr Kurzyna said on the day of the fire. Arriving firefighters found the main building “pretty much fully engulfed,” Kurzyna told RiverheadLOCAL in a phone interview that morning.
It took firefighters from more than 30 departments nearly 12 hours to extinguish the fire. “Hot spots” rekindled several times after all departments were released from the scene, requiring Riverhead firefighters to return to the site to put out new, small fires that erupted in the rubble.
The smoke from the fire overspread the area north and east of the facility as the fire burned, prompting Riverhead Police and the Suffolk County Office of Emergency Management to advise residents Wednesday to close their windows and avoid spending prolonged periods of time outdoors.
DEC Region 1 Assistant Regional Director Ryan McGarry said that afternoon that the regional office had already requested state DEC officials for air monitoring at and around the site. There are no air monitoring stations nearby, he said.
DEC’s Region 1 press office did not respond to a question emailed Monday about whether that air monitoring had taken place.
The types of materials that burned in the fire were of concern to firefighters and area residents, especially if asbestos materials were involved. Asbestos fibers, if inhaled, can cause a variety of very serious health problems, including lung cancer and mesothelioma.
The facility’s current permit allows it to handle up to 50 tons per day of asbestos-containing wastes, and store up to 185 cubic yards of asbestos on site for up to 10 days.
McGarry said at a press conference last Wednesday afternoon that “preliminary reports” indicated that no asbestos was on site. He said he didn’t want to confirm that until DEC was able to “do a more thorough investigation, but our preliminary reports are that there was no asbestos on the site at this time,” McGarry said.
“No asbestos-containing waste was present during the fire or subsequent inspection [on June 5],” DEC said in its emailed statement to RiverheadLOCAL Tuesday.
DEC’s Division of Materials Management “staff confirmed with facility owners [that] activities related to asbestos-containing waste has not commenced,” DEC said in the statement.
DEC did not respond to a question asking whether Crown’s records regarding wastes delivered to the facility prior to the fire and stored at the facility at the time of fire had survived the fire. Both state regulations and Crown’s facility manual allow those records to be kept on site.
DEC has an open spill investigation into wastewater moving off site during firefighting activities, according to agency records. The department’s Division of Environmental Remediation spill response staff performed an initial inspection, the DEC said in the statement.
“However, a complete inspection was not possible due to ongoing hotspots from fire, and waste piles outside. Once the outdoor stockpiles of C&D debris and MSW are removed, further investigation will be performed,” the statement said.
DEC staff have directed the facility owners and operators to remove outdoor stockpiles of construction and demolition debris and municipal solid waste from the site within two weeks and properly dispose of those materials, the statement said. The facility is currently working to remove the outdoor stockpiles.
DEC did not directly answer a question about whether the agency is monitoring operations at the facility. It noted that DEC entered into a consent order with Crown Recycling in 2018 “for violations related to storage of C&D debris at the facility.” The consent order required the facility to fund a DEC on-site environmental monitor to oversee compliance with the permit and consent order terms during operating hours, DEC said in the emailed statement.
Riverhead Town officials say the fire will not disrupt curbside pickup for residents in the town’s solid waste management districts. The town contracts with Colucci Carting to pick up and dispose of solid waste, recyclables and bulk waste in the designated residential collection districts.
“Until further notice, waste and recyclables that were previously disposed by Colucci Carting at Crown Sanitation will be transported (by Colucci) to Winter Brothers in Brookhaven and North Fork Recycling, in Mattituck, respectively,” a press release issued by Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard’s office Friday evening said.
Town Engineer and Sanitation Supervisor Drew Dillingham had spoken with Crown Recycling owner Peter Rossano about tractor-trailers lining up along Youngs Avenue awaiting entry to Crown, the supervisor’s press release said. The town’s outreach to the owner was a result of “multiple complaints” from residents, according to the press release.
Residents have been complaining for a long time to town and state officials about ongoing traffic concerns, especially truck traffic, according to Greater Calverton Civic Association President Toqui Terchun.
Dillingham has arranged that inbound trucks must call Crown prior to arrival and will be directed to either enter or queue-up in the rear of the Crown property – not on Youngs Ave, the release said.
The civic group wrote to the DEC on May 28 about truck traffic and other issues.
“Traffic on Youngs Avenue continues to be a nightmare,” the group said in the letter. “There is no room on the site, so they [tractor-trailers] must back in,” the letter said. “There are conflicts with school buses and regular traffic every day.”
The civic complained not only of trucks idling on Youngs Avenue, but the speed at which they travel and the local roads they use to and from the facility. According to the complaint, trucks take Youngs Avenue westbound, in violation of Crown’s facility manual filed with the DEC, which details its operations pursuant to its DEC permit. and travel through a residential development off Youngs Avenue “to avoid the hairpin turn” on Youngs.
Crown’s facility manual prepared by Galli Engineering of Melville last updated March 18, 2022 and submitted to DEC in support of its March 2022 solid waste management facility permit application states: “Vehicles arriving and departing the project site will utilize Youngs Avenue to access Osborne [sic] Avenue… No truck traffic, other than garbage trucks that collect residential waste along Youngs Avenue will be permitted to utilize Youngs Avenue.”
The facility manual is a 77-page document, exclusive of appendices and attachments, that details every aspect of the facility’s operational requirements, including traffic control, materials handling, record-keeping, monitoring and response to spills and other incidents at the facility.
Crown Sanitation Inc. is the legal holder of the permit. Crown first applied to DEC for a permit to construct and operate a recycling and transfer facility at the site in May 1993. The state classified the action as unlisted and issued a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, meaning that no environmental impact statement was required, according to DEC records available online. The permit was issued in November 1994.
Over the years, the DEC has approved permit modifications allowing the facility to increase the volume and types of wastes to be accepted by and processed at the facility.
Crown’s most recent permit renewal was approved by DEC on May 16 of this year.
Alek Lewis contributed reporting.
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