In 2019, Joseph Karolys began dumping construction and waste material in and from Saugerties. The DEC confirmed that it was filled with hydrocarbons, metals and pesticides and directed Karolys to immediately remove the waste and dispose of it at an authorized waste management facility. Instead, five months later, after his business had already been shut down, Karolys began transferring at least 200 truckloads to 10 Church Road in Shady, unabated by the town. A hydrogeologist, John Conrad, hired by Frank and Pam Eighmey, whose property abutted a huge mound of the landfill that thereafter washed down onto their property, found dangerous contaminants. Appealed to by Shady residents and given that the dumping violated town law, in October, 2020 the town supervisor promised a full cleanup.
Between late 2020 and mid 2022 there were continuing discussions about a plan, but nothing happened. The town supervisor claimed that he needed a conviction before the town could take action and suggested instead that the Eighmeys sue Vincent Conigliaro, the owner of 10 Church Road and recipients of the “land fill.” The first conviction did finally come down in 2022, against Karolys and Gina Conigliaro, Vincent’s wife, but charges against Vincent were dropped by the town. Nevertheless, no action by the town followed for over a year. It should be noted that town law states that if the property owner does not exercise his/her responsibility, the town could seek a court order to have the remediation done and be reimbursed by the county, who would then bill Conigliaro on his tax bill. In 2022, Supervisor McKenna raised the possibility of creating a capital fund for a cleanup if Conigliaro didn’t take action, but board member Ratcliff suggested that a plan should be in place first, and no further discussion on this ever took place.
Finally, in 2023, five possible remedial plans were offered, including those from the Woodstock Environmental Commission, but the town supervisor decided to go with the least favorable, but, in his words, “most practical” one, which he said came from the town engineer, although it was presented on Conigliaro letterhead. “Plan E,” as it has been dubbed, was a “sort and shift” plan, one that merely removed the large, visible material (allegedly a couple of truck loads no one knows to where), and simply moved the vast majority of what had been dumped, the pulverized particulates, to other parts of the same property. And there they have remained, right over the town aquifer. No vote was taken and no residents were consulted. The supervisor directed the buildings department to issue a permit, but for some reason didn’t collect the required fee, saying it would be collected down the road (and hasn’t to this day). It should be noted that the permit refers to the contaminated debris as “dirt,” and states that it would all be cleaned up, which was not the plan, among other concerning issues including lack of documentation. The DEC did a visual inspection, took a few random soil samples, and declared the measure satisfactory, even though four distinguished hydrologists reported the continuing threat to the town water supply.
Throughout this process, the Woodstock Environmental Commission had been trying to exercise its responsibility by pressing for full disclosure and cleanup, but were essentially blocked from involvement and the chair ultimately removed and replaced. The Eighmeys appealed the remediation plan, but the town denied their right to an appeal. Finally, in 2024, Plan E was, in fact, declared illegal, having violated professional standards and the town’s own laws, including the “Fill and Grading” law, which had been passed to strengthen already existing ones. The supervisor continued to use the DEC “visual inspection” (which would not account for the pulverized debris, the most likely to leach into the aquifer) as justification for taking no further action on the Shady dump. However, the DEC has said that Woodstock law takes precedence, and our town always had the right and responsibility to clean up Shady according to its laws. As for the purported reason for the town’s inaction, that it can’t spend tax money on private property, two vouchers for work on that very property, dated 7/8/22 and 7/25/23, prove otherwise.
Just this month, Karolys was found guilty of toxic dumping and required to clean up three of his dump sites. However, Woodstock’s was not included because the town never joined the lawsuit against him. Rather, it has been fighting in court against the victims, the Eighmeys, who are seeking real remediation and damages. To this day, multiple hydrologists and hydrogeologists concur that it’s not a matter of if the particulates leach into the aquifer and pollute Woodstock’s water, it’s when. Some believe it’s already happening. Recent reports show a dramatic and dangerous rise in PFOS (“forever chemicals”), but no link has, at least as of yet, been established between that and the dump. Regardless, it’s undisputed that the 200 truckloads of alleged “dirt” originated from Karolys’s toxic Saugerties dump; the Conigliaros testified to it. The people of Shady continue to be strongly advised not to drink the water from their wells, which have been showing increasing and new contaminants. And the Eighmeys have pretty much gone broke fighting for not just themselves but for all of us, who will not only have to foot the bill for the town’s defense of the contaminated site, but potentially for a more massive clean-up effort if and when it makes our town water undrinkable.
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