Judge Orders Second Firm To Complete Global Site Cleanup

More than two years after a judge ordered Global Waste Recycling to remove all construction debris from its Covington, RI, site, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management estimates that at least 18,000 tons of waste remains on the 25-acre property.

Now a second company has been ordered to help in the clean-up.

Late last week Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel granted a request by the DEM that Independent Sand and Gravel -- which owns the 96-acre property containing the Global site -- share in the burden of removing debris from the property.

Both Global and Independent are owned by Michael Picozzi, according to DEM lawyer John Langlois.

Vogel said that court orders mandating that Global clean up the site have "no teeth" because the recycling business, which was closed in 2000 due to environmental violations, has no assets.

According to Langolois, the court's decision puts major pressure on Independent Sand and Gravel and, by extension, Picozzi: If, under Independent's watch, the clean-up isn't completed, the company could risk having its assets seized and sold by the state.

"It's a bigger hammer over Picozzi's head," Langlois said in an interview after the judge's ruling.

Two phone calls to Independent Sand and Gravel's Coventry office were not returned.

Between 2001 and 2003, Global Waste -- through the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, the state agency that had contracted haulers for the clean-up -- had removed about 150,000 tons of debris from its site.

But in May of last year, the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation stopped its work at the property after it was paid $174,521 from Global's closure fund -- a fraction of Global's $750,000 debt to the agency.

In court, before Vogel's ruling, Global lawyer Gregory L. Benik said that his client was negotiating a new agreement with Resource Recovery to continue the clean-up.

Removing the remaining debris, Benik said, would cost about $100,000. He said Global would use the $25,000 remaining in its closure fund to pay part of the fee and would sign a promissory note guaranteeing payment on the rest.

"Once we sign that note, we're prepared to go forward," Benik said.

But Langlois was skeptical.

"How long will this clean-up take?" he said. "We've been waiting two years now."

After the ruling, Langlois said that the DEM will work with Benik to draft an agreement formalizing Independent's role in the clean-up and to set a new timetable for the waste removal. Providence (Rhode Island) Journal