Arlington firefighters pour water on a fire that broke out at the FICA landfill. Firefighters had to unearth about 15-feet of garbage to get at smoldering embers, and an estimated 4.5 million gallons of water washed refuse into the Casperkill.
It was not until April 1980—three years after the Van Wagner Road landfill began operating—that the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) approved the permit. That same year, Dutchess Sanitation, Inc. was dissolved and a new partnership—known as FICA, an acronym for Fiorillo, Ianniello, Cohen and Associates—was formed. A three-year permit gave FICA permission to expand the landfill to handle an average of 140 tons of refuse a day (enough to take in all of the trash from the City of Poughkeepsie). The life of the permit was later extended until September 30, 1984, or to when the landfill reached maximum capacity, whichever came first. The landfill ultimately did reach capacity before the September deadline. On June 28th of 1983 the New York State DEC ordered garbage dumping to cease because the landfill had reached the maximum permitted elevation of 60 feet, and the firm had expanded into an adjacent 6.8 acres without state permission. Apparently, on June 10th, the DEC had rejected an application by the landfill owners to permit expansion to an adjacent 6.8-acre parcel of the property because the application had not proved that ground and surface water would not be adversely affected by such an increase in size. Even thought the department told the landfill owners to stop accepting garbage and cover the dump, the owners began dumping on the disputed parcel without permission. “What appears to have happened is they got a little too enthusiastic and expanded anyway,” DEC representative Ellen Muller said. James Milo—the operator of FICA—said the unauthorized expansion was “an inadvertent mistake.”
Limited dumping was periodically allowed at the FICA site between 1983 and 1984 to avoid a massive garbage crisis, but the majority of Poughkeepsie’s waste was sent to the nearby Amenia landfill until the $30 million incinerator along the Hudson opened in 1987. During this period the FICA landfill was only supposed to be burying construction and demolition debris, however, hazardous material probably continued to be taken-in. A witness testifying before a panel about organized crime control of garbage collection implicated Dutchess Sanitation as a mob-related company. The witness went on to describe how mob-controlled landfills routinely mixed hazardous waste with residential garbage and construction scraps in order to hide the smell and make it look like a regular load. Later on, James Milo—the operator of FICA—admitted to violating regulations by failing to control access to the site.
On September 23, 1984—just before the landfill closed once and for all—a fire broke out, sending clouds of white, brown, and black smoke into the air. The fire, which was started because the landfill owners violated their permit and failed to properly cover their garbage piles, was brought under control the same evening that it started. Unfortunately, though, firefighters had to continue to soak the smoldering trash for over 9 days to make sure the blaze wouldn’t start up again. Around 4.5 million gallons of water were pumped into the landfill during just the first 5 days of the fire, washing tons of garbage into the Casperkill. To determine exactly what kinds of pollutants were washed into the creek during the blaze, DEC officials took several water samples. Among other things, they found unusually high levels of benzene, toluene and ethyl benzene in the Casperkill. All three chemicals are hazardous; benzene is suspected to cause leukemia.
Shortly after the fire it was decided that the state should test to make sure that the waste in the landfill could not leach into the stream with normal precipitation events. Residents and scientists were especially concerned about the six thousand yards of sludge material that had been deposited in the FICA landfill after being dredged up from the water intake area at the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Alas, the state found that the site had never been properly closed and that wells had not been drilled according to the closure order.
Information from: Metal Contamination and Distribution in Casper Creek Poughkeepsie, New York. Chromium Concentrations Near the FICA Landfill. Elizabeth L. Belk, Dept. of Geology, Vassar College, 1995.
Kipp, Dennis. “Fire persists at town dump after 5 days.” The Poughkeepsie Journal 28 Sept. 1984. B1.
Kipp, Dennis. “Trash overflow closes town landfill after years of complaints, lawsuits.” The Poughkeepsie Journal 26 June 1983: D1.
Kipp, Dennis. “Witness tells panel: Mob controls waste industry.” The Poughkeepsie Journal 20 Sept. 1984. A1.
Kipp, Dennis and Bernie Kohn. “Fire Blackens Landfill.” The Poughkeepsie Journal 23 Sept. 1984. A1.
Saltzman, Jonathan and Helene Maiche. “State Closes Town Landfill.” The Poughkeepsie Journal 21 June 1983: A1.