"Environmentally compliant" Florida company dumps asbestos in wetlands..43 times

[madfloridian]

The company is licensed to be environmentally compliant. They were tearing down old dormitories at Florida Southern College. They were hired to get rid of the construction debris in a way that followed the rules.

They did not want to pay the $10,540 fee for the landfill. So they broke the law. They broke the law at least 43 times.

They dumped debris containing asbestos in the Green Swamp which is a "critical recharge area for the Floridan aquifer as well as the source of the Hillsborough, Withlacoochee, Ocklawaha, and Peace rivers."


Materials containing asbestos illegally dumped in Auburndale.
Polk County Sheriff's Office

This infuriates me. I know companies get away with this kind of stuff all the time, but in the Green Swamp? Deliberately? For $10,540 profit? Outrageous.

They then crushed the debris, making it even more dangerous.


Materials containing asbestos illegally dumped in Auburndale.
Polk County Sheriff's Office

Sheriff Grady Judd gets the air time he so adores in the video clip at at the link.

3 Accused of Dumping Asbestos, Debris in Wetland

Investigators say Ronnie Lee Spears Jr., branch operations manager for the Florida Environmental Compliance Corporation, instructed an employee to find a location where the asbestos material could be dumped to avoid paying $10,540 landfill fees. The cleanup of the site by the parent company in Orlando will cost $40,000.

Thomas Barnhill of Lake Wales is friends with Warren Gregory Gay of Winter Haven, who is a co-owner of the property where the debris was dumped, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Investigators say Barnhill arranged for 43 truck loads of the debris to be sent to the site. Gay allowed the debris to be dumped on his property in the Green Swamp to help form a road bed.

The Department of Environmental Protection found out about the incident through it’s tip line and asked the Sheriff’s Office to investigate.

“This is a huge crime for us,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “What shocked us about this is FECC (the company) and Ronnie Spears, were paid to dispose of this. We deal with illegal dumping every day, but when we deal with professional companies that know better, it significantly bothers us.”

Someone with an environmental conscience called the state tip line. Lucky for the people in Central Florida. The parent company in Orlando claims not to have known about the illegal dumping. Why didn't they know? That's my question.

[CrispyQ]

1. An appropriate fine: $10,540 x 43 = $453,220.

Assholes.

on edit: There was a Steven Segal movie with Kris Kirstofferson in it, & the KK character was the big honcho of a company that was dumping toxic waste in caves. When the court fined his company something ridiculous fine like $50,000, he laughed.

[madfloridian]

2. Even this is nothing compared to what the phosphate companies get away with here.

What they have done to this state is almost mind-boggling. They do the damage and then sell the company and disappear.

This is from 2005...what they did at Piney Point.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/297

""After taking control of Piney Point, Mulberry later declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and simply walked away after dumping the phosphate plant and its problems on state regulators. The price tag to clean up the billion-gallon mess: $140-million and counting.

The business executives, now scattered and working in the New York area or Texas, never should have left. And state regulators should not have been so lax in letting them go. It's one sorry precedent.

The owners and operators who got off scott free:
Philip Rinaldi, a French investor Judas Azuelos, Robert Stewart

After telling one newspaper earlier this year that he has no remorse over Piney Point - "no guilt at all" - Rinaldi now lives in a wealthy New Jersey neighborhood and works as president of P.L. Rinaldi & Associates, a "business development company."

Stewart and two other Mulberry managers were last seen in Texas working outside Houston for Agrifos Fertilizer, which like the Florida company reportedly has a history of financial and environmental problems.

As for Azuelos's whereabouts, no one seems sure. A former Mulberry board member told the Bradenton Herald in May that the French investor(Azuelos) is in Morocco tending another of his phosphate-fertilizer projects."

[pansypoo53219]

3. indeed.

and then the cheap bastards go to hell and get asbestosis for eternity.

[Shandris]

5. Its called 'Fire Down Below'

And as long as the costs of the fines continue to be below or at the cost of compliance, there will be NO incentive for these disgusting companies to change their policies. Oh I forgot, not 'policy', no one in charge knew anything about it, of course. It just miraculously happened 43 times. :sarcasm: :eyes:

[lpbk2713]

4. Anybody have a link to that site that tracks political contributions?

Something tells me Florida Environmental Compliance Corporation will be listed as a RNC donor.

It's probably standard practice for them. They just got caught this time.

[madfloridian]

6. Can't think of it right now.

Open Secrets does not show them.

[Dr.Phool]

12. Check the Florida Division of Elections.

They monitor State contributions.

[madfloridian]

13. Here's the link to the Divison of Elections. I don't see anything there.

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/index.shtml

Maybe I have not dug deeply enough.

Owner's name is Gordon Arthur Kirkland. I searched Open Secrets, nothing.

I tried both Gordon Kirkland and Arthur Kirkland.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. What connections does the construction co. have to the college, if any?

[madfloridian]

9. The college may have thought they were hiring a licensed legit company.

But then you never know in Florida...there are so many good old boys networks going around. :hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Well, we might take a gander, if we knew what they charged to remove the dorms.

If the cost was very low, I'd wonder why the construction company accepted to do dangerous work at such a low bid.

[Blue_Tires]

8. horrible

and this probably goes on much more often than we know, and companies continue to laugh while they get away with it...in the near future there will be a MAJOR "bill" for all the environmental degredation in the name of short-term profit... in the meantime i hope someone is keeping a detailed list of the offenders...

[madfloridian]

10. It probably goes on a lot....these guys just got caught.

:hi:

[Maestro]

14. Absolutely disgusting

I despise the people in these companies that would do this. Our world is fragile. What the hell do these idiots not understand? Asbestos is a very harmful product. God, this infuriates me.