A publication of Work On Waste USA, Inc., 82 Judson, Canton, NY 13617 315-379-9200 January 24, 1991


OGDEN MARTIN

struggling to develop landfills

Ogden Martin has become active in attempting to develop “stand alone” landfills, not connected to any specific incinerator project, to landfill incinerator ash. According to Ogden Projects W.J. Phillips, a vice president for corporate communications, Ogden “haven’t yet succeeded with a stand-alone landfill proposal...’We have not, but we are actively - and have been in the last year and a half - looking for opportunities like that,’ he said. Ogden has pursued more than two dozen such prospects in the last two years, he said, unable to say how many of the proposals remain alive.” (Watertown Daily Times, NY, 12-22-90, pg. 38.) Ogden has approached communities in NY and PA using different tactics to try to site ashfills. In Tioga County, PA, approx. 80% of the residents voted against importing waste in a county referendum and the Tioga County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance in 1989 banning the importation of waste. Yet Ogden Projects told the Tioga County community that it will pursue a permit application to landfill out of county waste irregardless of citizen opposition and have told the community they don’t think the ordinance will stand up in the courts. In St. Lawrence County, New York, Ogden Projects used Argyle Development Group from Rhode Island to site a landfill for them. But Ogden and Argyle told the community that if they didn’t want the landfill project, then they would withdraw the proposal. Due to “overwhelming opposition” in the St. Lawrence county town of DeKalb, Ogden & Argyle withdrew the proposal. Below are the details.

Ogden’s proposal to site a landfill in De Kalb, St. Lawrence County, NY. St. Lawrence county residents spent 5 1/2 years to successfully defeat a county proposed municipal waste incinerator. In July 1990, nine days after the incinerator was defeated, newspaper reports unveiled plans to develop a private landfill by James F. Morrill (former R.I. steel mill owner who now lives in West Palm Beach, FL, and the brother of St. Lawrence County legislator Stan Morrill) and Alan J. Goldman, a long-time lobbyist and lawyer for the waste hauler industry, of Goldman & Biafore of Rhode Island. The plans were for a landfill in the small rural farming town of DeKalb on a 370-acre farm co-owned by County Legislator Stan Morrill and his brother James Morrill. By December 1990 the scheme had developed into a 700 tpd landfill to be operated and owned by Ogden Martin. The scheme was to railroad incinerator ash into the county on the Conrail railroad line located one mile from the proposed landfill site and to landfill the county’s waste (approx 200 tpd). A $2 per ton host benefit was offered to the town which on an annual basis would have been equal to the town’s property taxes. Argyle Development Group of Rhode Island acted as the middlemen for Ogden on this proposal. The three R.I. partners in Argyle are: Alan J. Goldman, Thomas McCaughey and Robert Cece. (These three men, through highly questionable methods, were able to get a no-bidding contract for a 750 tpd Foster Wheeler incinerator for Central Falls, RI.) Argyle’s McCaughey and Cece and Ogden’s Adrian Foley informed residents in the town of DeKalb at a 1-5-91 public hearing that if their 5-member town board were not in favor of the proposal, the landfill would be dropped. The residents immediately organized, formed Neighbors in Action, and within three weeks they had collected 1,200 signatures on a petition against the landfill from a town that has a population of approx. 2,100 residents. Also opposing the landfill proposal were the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, the Hermon DeKalb School Board, the Town Health Officer, school doctor, Chairmen of both the Democratic and Republican committees in DeKalb, the Kendrew Grange (a farmers group), the Governor District School Bus Drivers Assoc., and the Ladies Auxiliary of the Richville fire department. The Amish community, in an unusual show of dealing with the larger community, signed the petitions and a few attended the public meetings. Students in the high school formed SOLID -Students Opposed to a Landfill in DeKalb. As one resident told Adrian Foley of Ogden Projects at the January 5th meeting: ‘Don ‘t you people know that we have just spent five years fighting an incinerator because of opposition to toxic air emissions and toxic incinerator ash.” Adrian Foley would not give any indication as to where the incinerator ash would come from. (Note: Ogden Martin is trying to build a 990 tpd incinerator in Syracuse, NY, which is 120 miles south of DeKalb. The former Director of St. Lawrence County’s trash authority , Paul O’Connor, resigned after the incinerator defeat and is now the director of Syracuse’s trash authority.) The major reasons for community opposition was the waste importation issue and the landfilling of toxic incinerator ash. The Argyle developers held several private meetings with county legislators, county industries, and haulers, to try to sell this scheme. On December 14-15, landfill proponent James Morrill paid all expenses to take three DeKalb officials and two county trash authority members in a chauffeured limousine to tour the Ogden Martin incinerator and ashfill in Haverhill, MA. Argyle suggested at the 1-5-91 meeting that Ogden’s landfill could help reduce the debt burden incurred by the county trash authority in its expensive attempts to build an incinerator by giving the trash authority a percentage of the tipping fees. Residents videoed the January 5th meeting where the landfill proposal was formally introduced to the community. At that meeting were Argyle’s McCaughey and Cece, and Ogden’s Adrian Foley. On January 26 a second public hearing was held, attended by approx. 500 residents, where it was announced that Argyle and Ogden had informed the DeKalb town board the previous day of their withdrawal from the proposal due to “overwhelming opposition.” For more information contact Chris Neurath, Neighbors in Action, Rt. 1, Box 123A, Richville, NY l3681. Tel: 315-347-2427.

Some background on Alan J. Goldman and Argyle Development Corp: Thomas McCaughey and Robert Cece, partners in Argyle, are both involved in trash hauling operations in R.I. Robert Cece sold his trash hauling firm to BFI. The third partner, Alan J. Goldman, at one time the legal counsel to former Rhode Island Governor Frank Licht, was indicted, and acquitted, in Federal District Court with Mr. Fusaro, a law partner of former Connecticut State Senator Strada. According to the Hartford Courant of 4-20-78, page 6: “Fusaro and Alan J. Goldman, a politically prominent Rhode Island attorney, are charged with trying to hide a $25,000 payment to Strada and Fusaro’s law firm from Tourism & Development Corp. [Goldman’s firm] of Providence, which promoted Jai Alai and greyhound racing in CT, RI and MA.” Goldman was also charged with lying to tax agents and obstructing their investigation. “An IRS agent testified Wednesday in Federal District Court here [Providence] that gambling firm vice president Alan J. Goldman admitted he was trying to protect the reputation of an influential [Ct] State Senator when he lied to the agents.” - Hartford Courant, 10-12-78. Goldman also owns Wetumpka Trading Corp, which deals in the trading and developing of land and real estate. According to the Providence Journal, RI, 7-16-90 on the Central Falls, RI, incinerator project: “The [RI] Solid Waste Corporation wants to give the job to a New Jersey developer [Foster Wheeler] - selected not by agency commissioner but by a group of Rhode Island trash haulers, represented by Alan J. Goldman, a long-time lobbyist and lawyer for the waste hauler industry....The RI Solid Waste Management Corp. is preparing to hire a builder and operator for the Central Falls incinerator without the competitive bidding normally required for such a project.”

Ogden’s proposal to site a landfill in Antrim, Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Several years ago Phoenix Resources applied for the original (and existing) permit to landfill fly ash from a New York state coal-fired electricity plant in the small town of Antrim, near Wellsboro. The land up for purchase is in excess of 1,000 acres, with a proposed landfill of 145 acres, and is owned by International Paper Co. which they lease to Phoenix Resources, with an option to buy. Richard Maze is the owner of the strip mine on this land and is the owner of Phoenix Resources. The nearby railroad is Conrail. The community was informed about Ogden Martin’s takeover of the permit application in November 1990. Antrim Mining currently operates an existing fly ash (from a coal-fired plant) site on approx. 40 acres on a “put and take” basis (the ash if often taken away from the site for utilization in other processes), and pays the community 25 cents a ton. Ogden Martin is in the process of having the permit amended for the landfilling of “residual waste”. Adrian Foley, co-president and co-CEO of Ogden Projects has offered no information to the community as to where the “residual waste” would come from. Ogden has suggested to the Antrim community that they would help with a town sewer system. The population of Tioga County is approx. 40,000, and the principle industry is dairy and tourism. The Pine Creek Headwater Protection Group is opposing the site primarily because of the fear that run-off will pollute Pine Creek, a pristine trout stream located in a scenic gorge setting. They have received a lot of support from different state groups, including Trout Unlimited. For more information contact Ron Comstock, president of the Pine Creek Headwater Protection Group, 11 King Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901. Tel: 717-724-3796


WASTE NOT # 135 A publication of Work on Waste USA, published 48 times a year. Annual rates are: Groups & Non-Profits $50; Individual $40; Students & Seniors $35; Consultants & For Profits $125; Canadians $US45; Overseas $65. Editors: Ellen & Paul Connett, 82 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617. Tel: 315-379-9200. Fax: 315-379-0448.