Cause of blaze that destroyed Calverton recycling plant remains unknown, as officials praise first responders who fought 12-hour battle

The smoldering ruins of the Crown Recycling facility on Youngs Avenue provided a smoky backdrop for a press conference called this afternoon by Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard at the entrance to town’s inactive landfill across the road.

Hubbard, flanked by town, county and state officials, thanked the “incredible” first responders for the work they did to knock down and control the blaze.

The fire was reported at about 2 a.m. and the recycling plant was fully involved in flames when Riverhead Fire Department arrived on scene moments later. Riverhead firefighters, assisted by more than 30 fire departments and emergency medical services from around the region, fought the fire for nearly 12 hours.

MORE COVERAGE: Breaking: Large fire burns at recycling facility on Youngs Avenue 

Riverhead Fire Department Chief Piotr Kurzyna said he was grateful for the turnout of the approximately 250 fire department and EMS volunteers who answered the call and got the job done. In all, more than 30 departments responded, he said.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the massive, smoky blaze. “We had one firefighter that was evaluated at the scene, and he was released,” Hubbard said.

The fire destroyed the main building at the site and damaged a smaller building behind it. It was not clear how many vehicles and other structures were damaged or destroyed.

Riverhead Police, the Riverhead Fire Marshal’s Office and the Suffolk County Police Department arson squad are cooperating in an investigation of the fire. Its cause and the precise location of where it started are not yet determined.

The acrid odor of smoke from the still-smoldering site filled the air on Youngs Avenue. 

Officials do not yet have a clear picture of the nature or quantity of the materials that burned within the recycling plant when it went up in flames this morning. 

Crown Sanitation Inc. has a permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to receive, sort and process municipal solid waste and construction and demolition debris at the plant. Crown’s DEC permit was last renewed May 16. 

The company has operated at the Youngs Avenue site since roughly 1988, originally as a trash collection company that picked up garbage in the Town of Riverhead and elsewhere and disposed of it at facilities including the town dump, located right across the road. When state law forced municipal solid waste landfills, including Riverhead’s,  to close in the early 1990s, Crown began a transition to a waste transfer station and recycling facility.  

Its town site plan approval for the current structures on the site dates back to 2003, according to town records.

DEC Region One Assistant Regional Director Ryan McGarry, said the DEC responded to the scene early this morning “to  set up some booms and do our best to contain any runoff from the fire suppression efforts.” He said once the agency gets permission from first responders to get into the site, it will begin a more thorough investigation.

Contrary to information provided to a reporter earlier in the day, the DEC was not conducting air monitoring in the area today, McGarry said. 

“We can only air monitor where we have existing air monitors in place,” he said. “Outreach was done to higher levels of government to see if they have that technology and equipment,” he said. “Our main involvement thus far has been from a spill standpoint…to contain the runoff from fire suppression efforts.”

Area residents expressed concerns about possible health impacts from the smoke billowing from the facility all morning, which residents as far away as Reeves Park were able to smell. 

The facility’s permit allows it to accept up to 195 tons of municipal solid waste per day, including up to 50 tons per day of asbestos, as well as 551 tons of construction and demolition debris per day. 

State Environmental Conservation Law and regulations require transfer stations and recycling facilities to keep detailed records of the types, amounts and sources of all wastes accepted for transfer and or recycling. But the rules allow permit holders to maintain those records on site. The fate of such records at Crown’s facility remains unknown, McGarry said.

“It’s still very much in the preliminary stages, but we do have reason to believe, based on … preliminary reports, that there was no asbestos on site,” McGarry said. He did not offer a source for those reports. “Again, I don’t want to confirm that until we’ve actually been in there and can do a more thorough investigation, but our preliminary reports are that there was no asbestos on the site at this time,” he said.

“We are going to be thoroughly investigating, as best as we can, all debris, once we get the green light to do so,” McGarry said. 

He said he is not aware of any outstanding notices of violation issued by the DEC to the facility.

An NOV issued by the agency in July 2017 for violations pertained to loading and unloading and storing construction and demolition debris outside the facility, allowing it to come into contact with precipitation and causing the generation of leachate and the permit holder’s failure to adequately repair and maintain the facility’s designated C&D storage enclosure, according to state records.

Crown entered into a consent order settling that matter in February 2018, and agreed to pay a civil penalty of $20,000, of which $15,000 was suspended conditioned on Crown’s strict compliance with the terms of the consent order regarding repair and maintenance and proper storage.

Riverhead Town Deputy Fire Marshal Liam Keating said “the facility is pre-existing” as far as “specific fire code requirements” for smoke detectors, “but this facility did not, to my understanding, have smoke detectors within.” He said he did not know whether there are any open town code or fire code violations outstanding at the site, but “off the top of my head, I’m not aware of any.”

‘This facility cannot exist here’: Calverton civic group leader

Crown’s operations have drawn complaints over the years from nearby residents, many of whom reside in neighborhoods developed in the vicinity after the facility was in operation at its site. The area transformed from an industrial-agricultural area to one seen as mostly residential. Resulting frictions between neighbors and the facility have resulted from the amount of  heavy truck traffic, trucks parking and idling on Youngs Avenue,  and noise from operations.  

The facility manual, prepared by an engineering firm hired  by Crown as required by the DEC, spells out requirements for operations and maintenance, including managing truck traffic to and from the site. 

“There is enough on-site truck queuing space to accommodate trucks entering and leaving the facility,” the 201-page manual states. “There should be no need for trucks to queue on Youngs Avenue or on any other nearby street.”

Trucks queuing on Youngs Avenue have been the source of recent complaints by area residents. The Greater Calverton Civic Association on May 25 sent a letter to the DEC Region One office complaining about, among other things, traffic from the site and heavy trucks idling in the roadway, which the civic said is a regular occurrence. 

A copy of the letter was emailed to the Riverhead Town Board and town clerk today, Greater Calverton Civic President Toqui Terchun said this afternoon.

Residents have been fearful of and angry about the operations there, and were worried about air quality impacts even before today’s blaze, Terchun said.

She said the town and the DEC have been “turning a blind eye” to issues there including conditions she said violated the company’s site plan requirements.

“This facility cannot exist here,” Terchun said. She called it “a toxic nightmare.”

Crown Sanitation principal and company president Peter Rossano did not return messages seeking comment this afternoon. 

The facility has an active role in Riverhead Town’s recycling program, according to the town supervisor. Nevertheless, Hubbard said, today’s destructive fire “won’t affect Riverhead’s recycling program.” 

The town contracts with Gallucci Carting to pick up household wastes, and the carter “would come up here and then hand it off to Crown, and Crown would have to sort out the recyclables from the regular trash, and then they would pack it up and send it off,” Hubbard said. 

The facility handles most of the wastes its permit allows it to accept for transfer and processing in the 21,540-square-foot main building, which is now destroyed. MSW is placed on a conveyor belt within the building. Pickers pull recyclables from the waste stream and deposit them in separate containers.

“We’ll start up again next week. They’ll be ready,” he said. “They’ll make provisions to have either containers or something where they can put them in and transfer them out to other locations.”

Hubbard said the town’s yard waste facility, which sits adjacent to the Crown’s site on Youngs Avenue, will be closed for the rest of this week.  Yard waste pick-up scheduled for tomorrow and Friday in Riverhead’s municipal garbage districts is canceled, the supervisor said.