Report: Nassau DA and state AG investigating firm that piled Sandy debris on Riverhead farm

The company that imported more than 30,000 cubic yards of Sandy storm debris from Nassau County to a Sound Avenue farm before the Town of Riverhead issued a stop-work order in December is at the center of investigations by the Nassau County district attorney and by the state attorney general, Newsday is reporting.

Transactions between Looks Great Services Inc. of Huntington and Nassau County for the disposal of Sandy-related storm debris are among those that are the subject of subpeonas issued last month by Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice. N.Y. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has also opened an investigation, according to Newsday.

Investigators are reportedly “focusing on the political process used in selecting debris-removal contractors,” and whether the contractors complied with prevailing wage laws, Newsday reports.

Looks Great Services Inc., a landscaping company, was dumping wood chips and vegetation hauled out of Nassau County on a 41-acre Sound Avenue farm in December, until Riverhead officials issued a stop-work order on Dec. 16. The town was alerted to the activity by local residents who were asking about a large volume of tractor-trailer traffic entering the site, Riverhead Town Attorney Robert Kozakiewicz told RiverheadLOCAL in December.

The farm is owned by Justin Purchasing Corp., which, according to town tax records, is located at the same Huntington address listed as that of Looks Great Services on its website.

The storm debris was being imported without a use permit from the town, which Kozakiewicz said in December could not be issued because the activity did not comply with the site’s Residence A zoning.

Justin Purchasing also did not have a state solid waste permit for processing the debris at the site, though a state DEC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said it did not need one.

“It is not solid waste and the DEC does not have jurisdiction,” he said in an interview. “We told him to contact the town.”

Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said that was “insane.”

“For someone to turn around and decide they’re going to process yard waste from Nassau County, or anyplace else, on an agricultural piece of property is not going to hold up in the Town of Riverhead,” Walter said.

The town attorney said then he understood that “the state DEC was involved since day one.” When he expressed concern about potential contamination from the debris, he said, he was told officials were using “real-time GPS to make sure trucks are not picking up other debris along the way.”

One Nassau County legislative aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told RiverheadLOCAL this week the County Legislature, which authorized the contract with Looks Great Services, “had no idea” where the debris was going. He said legislators “got interested” when residents began complaining about apparently healthy trees being cut down along Searingtown and Shelter roads.

“We’ve asked for records,” he said, adding “they’ve been paid $35 million out of a $68.8 million contract” approved by the legislature after the Oct. 29 “superstorm.”

Kristian Agoglia, of both Looks Great and Justin Purchasing, told Riverhead officials the material was being brought in as a soil enrichment addition only, Kozakiewicz said in December.

“He claims they will windrow it, chip it to a smaller size, then till it into the soil to enrich the soil,” Kozakiewicz said then.

The Riverhead Town Board on April 2 ratified a stipulation of settlement signed by Kozakiewicz, Justin Purchasing Corp., Agoglia and lawyer Mary Hartill of Riverhead, on behalf of Agoglia and his company. The stipulation allows the company to process the 32,000 cubic yards of wood chips and vegetation already brought onto the site, which “will be used exclusively to enrich soils upon the premises and may not be sold, transferred or exported off the premises.” The parties agreed there will be no additional materials imported to the site.

Subsequent to the issuance of the stop-work order, Justin Purchasing Corp. and Agoglia had filed a permit application seeking to import 150,000 cubic yards of wood chips and other vegetation to the Sound Avenue farm.

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