County Waste to pay nearly $1 million trash settlement

February 22, 2010 at 1:32 pm by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Tim O’Brien reports:

Clifton Park-based trash hauler County Waste has agreed to a nearly $1 million settlement in connection with trash it was accused of dumping at the Colonie Town Landfill without paying proper tipping fees.

About $736,000 will go to the town, and the remaining $250,000 is a fine associated with inappropriate waste that the company accepted at its Clifton Park transfer station, according to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

“Scams like this not only potentially impact the environment, but also taxpayers who have to bear the brunt of lost revenue,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The whistleblower in the case, former County Waste manager Ralph Hunter, will receive a total of $163,651 from the above amounts.

The amount of the settlement pales in comparison to some of the figures publicly discussed. Hunter initially contended the firm had defrauded the town of as much as $15 million.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation began investigating County Waste in February 2007. In July 2008, a search warrant was executed at County Waste’s Clifton Park facility.

Click on link to the coverage from the day the Times Union broke this story.



http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/6321/county-waste-to-pay-nearly-1-million-trash-settlement/