Politics & Government

State Officials Demand County Remove Hazardous Fill From JHC Property

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued a violation to the county and given it 30 days to remove the materials.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has ordered Westchester County Parks to remove the waste county workers dumped on the Jay Heritage Property in January, saying that the county could face legal action if it fails to comply with the order within 30 days.

The DEC sent a letter, dated April 9, to John Baker, the director of program development for the county's Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation.

The letter states that the DEC inspected the JHC site on March 17 and interviewed everyone directly involved. It determined that the material dumped on the property, which came from Playland, was solid waste. The DEC has given the county a violation for improperly disposing of the materials.

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The DEC has ordered the county to:

  • Remove all material placed in the pool and the stockpile used to transfer the materials, as well as any solid waste on the road.
  • Remove the small piles of construction and demolition debris behind the tennis building.
  • Place all these removed materials at a permitted landfill.

The DEC concluded its letter to the county with a stern warning.

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"Failure to comply with the above requirement will result in referral to the Department's Office of General Counsel for formal legal action," the letter stated.

The DEC's involvement is just another recent development in the ongoing dispute between Westchester County and the Jay Heritage Center.

County workers dumped fill on the Jay property in January and left tire ruts on the property that were two feet deep, according to Suzanne Clary, president of the Jay Heritage Center. They also filled the property's unused pool with debris. Clary said the materials were dumped in part of a bird preserve and in areas that could possibly have archaeological significance.

The incident was another footnote in a complicated history between the JHC and the county. The 23-acre property, the childhood home of John Jay--a prominent 18th century American politician and one of the country's founding fathers--is a national historic landmark. The county and state own 23.5 acres of the property, while the center owns the remaining 1.5 acres. The county is responsible for maintaining the property on the state's behalf.

Clary hired an engineering group in February to determine if the materials dumped on the property were in fact hazardous. The group's report concluded that the materials contained hazardous chemicals such as acetone--a common laboratory contaminant--arsenic, chromium, lead and pesticides such as DDT. All the chemicals were at levels that exceeded standards set by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The report concluded that the materials should not be in areas that are intended for unrestricted use, meaning sites which have no use restrictions and "are formulated to be protective of human health, groundwater and ecological resources," the report said.

The matter was referred to the DEC, but Clary and the County Parks department began discussions about how to move forward.

Clary said the JHC and the county have had "positive talks" and the county has assured her they will address the matter.

"The County has assured JHC that this clean-up will be done with full protection of  archaeologically sensitive artifacts on the Jay Property and in consultation with JHC," Clary said in statement.

"JHC was obviously distressed that  County Parks brought new waste to the Jay Property in January and that past County administrations had failed for nearly two decades to clean up the waste left on the site by the former developer and prior owners," Clary added. "But following constructive and positive talks with the new County administration this week, JHC is optimistic that there will be no repetitions of such violations in the future." 

"Furthermore, we are hopeful that this incident has prompted County Parks to establish new protocols for the use and screening of fill used at all the parks and historic sites in its care," Clary said.

Westchester County Parks could not be reached this morning for comment. 


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