FREELANCE INVESTIGATIONS EXCLUSIVE
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OPENED...
A criminal investigation into the alleged transport and burning of radiated waste in Huntington has been opened by the DEC at the request of Governor Cuomo.
Recently it was reported here that Mr. William Perks, former Harbormaster and Hazardous Materials Coordinator, for the Town of Huntington, had sent letters to officials requesting a formal investigation into the illegal trucking and burning of radiated waste for over ten years at the Ogden Martin Waste-to-Energy Incinerator. In a letter dated February 4, 2014 from Peter Scully, Regional Director (Region 1) of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) he responded to Mr. Perks:
Dear Mr. Perks,
The office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has asked that I respond on his behalf to your recent letter requesting an investigation of alleged criminal actions of the Town Board, Town of Huntington, and the alleged illegal burning of radioactive waste in East Northport.
Inasmuch as your letter involves allegations of criminal conduct, I have forwarded your letter and attendant documents to DEC's Division of Law Enforcement Bureau of Environmental Crime Investigation (BECI) and expect that you will be contacted directly by an investigator assigned to the case.
Thank you for bringing this matter to the Governor's attention.
Sincerely, Peter A. Scully
cc: Captain Tim Huss, Law Enforcement Lt. Frank Lapinski, BECI
Mr. Perks said he is encouraged that the investigation has been formally opened. One of the persons assigned to the case in the cc line is a gentleman called Lt. Frank Lapinski.
"GRIZZLY-GATE"....?
Mr. Perks said that he spoke to Lt. Lapinsky around 2001 and Lt. Lapinsky informed him at the time that grizzly, or radiated scrap metal, had contaminated the crucible of an Ohio Foundry that took metals and scrap from Gershow Recycling in Medford, Long Island. Mr. Perks said that Lt. Lapinsky told him the foundry had filed a lawsuit and sued Gershow and that prompted Gershow to install a radiation detector on their property.
Soon after, it was discovered that all the contaminated and radiated scrap or grizzly was coming from Huntington Town's Ogden Martin (now called Covanta) Facility, the only plant on Long Island that still had no radiation detector at the time. At least twenty two truckloads were sent back from Gershow to Ogden Martin over just a few weeks time and Mr. Perks was alarmed because no one at the plant had Haz-Mat gear or any protection against the odorless, colorless deadly radiation despite his asking for it from the Town in several memos. Josephine Jahier and Phil Nolan, who were in charge of the facility at the time told him they would take his concern under advisement and it was not his responsibility, "It is none of your concern."
Later after he left Town employ, they would try to blame him when the State Labor Board cited them for failure to keep records of exposure, called medical monitoring. The (Ogden Martin (now Covanta) permit does not allow the burning of any kind of radioactive waste including isotopes from low level medical facilities.
Although this went on for over a decade according to testimony from sources speaking to and documents obtained by Freelance Investigations, the official reports minimize the level of exposure.
The truck manifests were missing key pieces of information regarding the type of radioactive isotopes being transported and the amount. They were all 40 yard containers filled with contaminated scrap metal and the documents did say specifically return of radioactive scrap metal. The Town was clearly in possession of documents proving there was radiated materials and they decided to re-introduce it into the incinerator placing employees and the public at large at risk again, this time with full knowledge.
These truckloads were then dumped onto the parking lot ground outside the incinerator and then re-introduced into the incinerator and burned over again. They would slowly take some of the scrap and re-introduce the scrap back into the incinerator. A witness along with Mr. Perks went to the State Attorney General's Office, C. Michael Higgins, and he sent a letter to the Town asking for the names and other key information relating to the allegations.
In a letter obtained by Freelance Investigations dated May 27, 2004, from the Town's Attorneys, outside counsel, Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC to Attorney General, C. Michael Higgins in response to his request for information on exposure of all employees, they never mention radioactivity at all and they refer to Mr. Perks' exposure to petroleum in his duties as Oil Spill Response Manager instead. Then after he retired, they tried to blame Mr. Perks saying it was his job to keep track of exposures and they said he failed to do so. However, Mr. Perks filed dozens of complaints and grievances that were ignored and when he asked for a meeting to discuss the alarming situation they sent him a letter saying, "Your concerns have been duly noted, but it is not your responsibility."
A document about the radioactive waste dated May 18, 2000 from the facility manager at Ogden Martin; Thomas Chambers, shows that from January to April of that year there were 25 incidents of radioactivity at the plant. Mr. Chambers wrote:
“With the exception of (3) ferrous metal loads returned from Gershow recycling most all incidents involved metal isotopes utilized in diagnostic testing. In the beginning of April 2000 we raised the detection level of the Bicron radiation detector to (5) times background and therefore the amount of detections dropped off considerably in April."
Lt. Lapinsky asked Mr. Perks several times if he was taping their conversation that was taking place in the conference room of Mr. Perks' attorney, Edward Yule's office. Mr. Perks told him "No." several times and Lt. Lapinsky continued saying, he originally thought there was something to his complaints, but upon an exhaustive investigation found there was "nothing there". Mr. Perks said when he provided him the paperwork proving his allegations, including proof that high level radiation had gone through the power plant and also a deposition from a Town Board member, Susan Scarpati-Reilly that stated there was an issue with radiation at the plant as far back as 1994/95 according to her testimony under oath, Lt. Lapinsky did not look at any of it. Despite that he immediately stated, "You can't prove anything." Ms. Scarpati-Reilly testified that at the time the Town "took care of it" but never released the information to the public or employees.
Roughly a year later Mr. Perks FOIL'ed for the copy of Lt. Lapinsky's exhaustive investigation... it was one page and had two words... "Complaint Unfounded" and Mr. Perks says he was dumbfounded when he saw it.
Two gentlemen assigned to work at the incinerator from the NY State DEC, after a radiation detector had been installed at Ogden Martin in 2000, told him they had no training whatsoever in any type of radioactive contamination and proper response-- and admitted to Mr. Perks, when the alarm continued to go off, "We have no training or knowledge for that and we have nothing to do with it." he said.
Instead of providing proper gear and protecting the employees and notifying them as NY State Right-To-Know laws require, according to the Chamber's memo, the employees at the plant just raised the background level five times on the radiation detector and the alarm went off a lot fewer times. No one will say who gave them the permission to do that. Despite this, after the radiation detector was adjusted, the Town still spent tens of thousand of dollars per month to remove the radioactive waste, documents obtained by Freelance Investigations show. Mr. Perks says he asked at the time for a copy of Ogden Martin's emergency procedures plan, which he said they did have, but refused to give him.
Mr. Perks said no one in the Town kept exposure records, one of the things C. Michael Higgins had asked for, and no one was informed of their accumulated risks of exposure as required by law.
Ms. Scarpati-Reilly testified under oath in her deposition as a Town Councilwoman in the United States District Court case against her for sexual harassment of Mr. Perks, that the Town Board members discussed the radioactivity and related problems at the plant as far back as 1994/95 and kept the discussions in the secret Executive Sessions of the Town Board, of which there are never any records kept and didn't release the information to the public and employees because they were concerned about "litigation" in her exact words.
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