Thomas Datre Jr.’s application to haul NYC fill submitted at trial

Thomas Datre Jr., on trial in a dumping scheme along with his father, submitted applications to haul construction and demolition debris from New York City with a promise to take the material to “registered DEC dumping facilities,” according to documents submitted in court Wednesday.

Datre Jr. signed and submitted the notarized permit application with the New York City Business Integrity Commission on June 17, 2013, for his company, 5 Brothers Farming Corp., according to paperwork introduced in court by Assistant District Attorney Michele Pitman.

Testimony in the trial of Datre Jr. and his father, Thomas Datre Sr., has included witness accounts of Datre-owned trucks picking up fill from Brooklyn and Queens sites and dumping it at four sites in Islip Town and Deer Park. Datre Jr.’s application represents the first regulatory document tying him to the hauling of materials from the city.

Neither Datre Jr.’s defense attorney, Kevin Kearon, or his father’s counsel, Andrew Campanelli, cross examined Leigh Neren, assistant general counsel for the Manhattan-based agency that took the application.

Neren’s office issues permits and licenses to businesses in the private carting industry and the public wholesale markets.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota began investigating the dumping allegations in April 2014. He has said the Datres and four others took part in a scheme to spread debris across four sites in Suffolk County, including Roberto Clemente Park in Brentwood; a private lot on Islip Avenue in Central Islip; a housing development for Veterans in Islandia and a sensitive wetlands in Deer Park. Asbestos was found in dumped materials at some of the sites, as were banned pesticides, and semi-volatile and volatile organic compounds.

The Datres face charges of criminal mischief; endangering public health, safety or the environment; and operating a solid-waste management facility without a permit.

Datre Jr.’s permit application asked several questions including a description and nature of the work planned. In that space, Datre Jr. wrote: “Pick up clean and mixed material dirt concrete rock and brick up from various job sites.”

When asked to describe the sites from which he planned to remove waste, Datre Jr. wrote, “various construction sites.”

When asked how and where the business will dispose of the waste, Datre Jr. wrote “At registered DEC dumping facilities.” He checked “No” when asked if he’d transport asbestos.

The permits, valid for two years, were issued to Datre Jr.’s company by the agency, Neren testified. On Jan. 14, 2014, Christopher Grabe, of Islandia Recycling, who is also one of six indicted, signed for and picked up the registrations and special plates for four Datre vehicles identifying them as approved by Neren’s agency.

SEE PHOTOSIslip dumping scandal: A timeline

Spota has said dumping at Roberto Clemente Park occurred between spring 2013 and April 2014, while Suffolk police have testified they saw Datre trucks dumping materials at the Islip Avenue site in Central Islip as early as 2012.

Before Neren testified, Syed H. Rahman, an environmental engineer and the regional materials management supervisor with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, completed a second-day taking questions from Kearon.

Tuesday, Rahman testified that “everybody has a responsibility” — from generators, to truckers, to recipients — for properly disposing materials. Wednesday, Rahman told Kearon a staffing shortage at his Stony Brook-based DEC office, which keeps tabs on sites for the whole of Long Island, has kept him from conducting regular testing or inspections at dozens of DEC-registered recycling facilities producing fill for job sites.

Kearon asked Rahman about the facilities used to create recycled concrete aggregate, known in the industry as RCA, as well as fill, and if they are required by law to conduct chemical testing of every load that comes in.

“The DEC has the discretion to take samples,” Rahman answered.

Kearon asked if the DEC has staff at each of the facilities to monitor or take samples. Rahman testified they do not, but they are subject to random inspections.

“Do you know how many times a year approximately these inspections take place?” Kearon asked.

Rahman answered, “Because of our staffing situation, we do not go that often, it could be several times a year.” Rahman testified that most facilities operate most of the year without DEC supervision.

“So whatever it is that these facilities put back out into the marketplace, whether it’s RCA or fill of one type or another or topsoil, is being put out into the marketplace without chemical testing, correct?,” Kearon asked. “Correct,” Rahman said.

In the afternoon, Kathryn Loddengaard, a project scientist for Enviroscience Consultants Inc., of Ronkonkoma, who conducted soil tests at the four sites, took questions from Pitman, explaining the findings at each location, the testing methods and equipment used, and chain-of-custody records.

Loddengaard was the first of several prosecution witnesses expected to give scientific testimony. She is expected to return to the stand Thursday.