New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
City, state agencies take action on alleged illegal junkyard
NEW HAVEN — Agents of several city and state agencies, along with a halfdozen tow trucks, converged on a 21.5-acre property at 201 Russell St. in
Fair Haven Heights Tuesday after receiving multiple complaints about an alleged illegal junkyard with more than 100 vehicles on property previously found to be contaminated with PCBs.
City building and zoning inspectors, firefighters and police and representatives of the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Energy and Environment Protection were involved, filling the bucolic, edge-of-the-city neighborhood — where the nearest neighbors have a backyard oasis filled with chicken, turkeys, geese and goats — with uncharacteristic activity.
Representatives of the DEEP and DMV declined to comment.
About 10 acres of the site, which straddles the New Haven-East Haven line, actually is in East Haven, according to one of its owners.
City officials said the property, owned by heirs of the late Ralph Coppola, had been subject to DEEP cleanup and enforcement action at least as far back as 20 years ago.
Coppola died in 1997, said his grandson, James Fitzmaurice, one of the property’s owners, who was at the site talking to — and negotiating with — city and state officials.
As it turned out, no vehicles were immediately towed, although that may happen as soon as Wednesday, said city Building Official Jim Turcio. He said between 100 and 200 vehicles were on the property,
including an old firetruck, a school bus, several tractortrailers and numerous cars and other vehicles.
Officials gave the owners another day so that people who had rented space to store vehicles on the property could retrieve them, said Turcio, who was joined at the site by city Vendor Inspector Charlene Taylor.
Owners had to wait for a Fire Department water truck to arrive to rinse off vehicles’ tires to prevent any further spread of PCB contamination before they could remove their vehicles, Turcio said.
City spokesman Gage Frank said the people renting space to store vehicles
were unaware that the property was under an environmental enforcement order. The property owner owes the city $700,000 in back taxes, he said.
The property has been known to be contaminated for “over 20 years,” Turcio said. But “in the last year, the heirs apparently have opened up the junkyard” again, he said.
Neighbors have called repeatedly and officials previously visited the site about 21⁄2 weeks ago, Turcio said.
Over the past few months, “some people are renting spaces back there” to store vehicles, he said.
Fitzmaurice said he is
one of a number of family members who inherited the property from his late grandfather, Ralph Coppola. He said the property had been subject to illegal dumping by people who took down a section of fence to dump hundreds of tires there.
He said the current issue resulted because “the neighbors don’t like me.”
Fitzmaurice said he was “kind of glad it happened,” however, because he wants to clean it up and put it to a better use.
“Basically, I inherited the property,” Fitzmaurice said. At one point years ago, several of his relatives opted out of accepting responsibility for any environmental damage, but he and some other relatives did not, he said.
“We knew the property was contaminated,” Fitzmaurice said. He said his grandfather accepted scrap metal from a utility company years ago, before PCBs were recognized as an environmental hazard. That activity ceased in 1982, he said.
At some point thereafter, “the city came in to clean it up” and eventually turn it into a park, he said.
In the years between, occasional illegal dumping occurred there, Fitzmaurice said.
At least one set of neighbors among those who complained said they were pleased to see the city and state take action.
“I just think it’s long overdue,” said neighbor Alex Orellana, whose home backs up to the property. “I know there’s been multiple complaints, including my own.
“It’s disgraceful,” Orellana, who moved to Fair Haven Heights with his family from Queens, N.Y., two years ago, said of his neighbor’s property. It’s difficult “to be seeing all that mess there.”
As he spoke, his father, Milton, nodded his head.
Fair Haven Heights Alder Rose Santana, D-13, said she and others have been trying to get the property cleaned up for years — including when houses were built nearby, raising fears of children playing on the property, which is fenced.
“It’s scary,” Santana said. “If you have kids playing, they could come in contact with PCBs.
“I’m glad to see that it’s actually happening,” she said of the cleanup.