'Dirtman' fined $25,000 for Eastchester school dumping

(Original publication: February 16, 2007)

EASTCHESTER - The Mahopac dirt broker at the center of fill-for-fields projects in three Westchester school districts was fined $25,000 yesterday for illegally running a landfill on the grounds of Eastchester High and Middle schools.

Westchester County Judge Richard Molea fined Anthony Adinolfi, president of the now-defunct Dirtman Enterprises Inc., 22 days after he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the plea deal yesterday.

"An environmental infraction of this nature is a shameful act; the fact that this crime occurred on the grounds of a school, putting children at risk, is deplorable," said Cuomo, whose office pursued the charges filed in June by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. "We will continue to prosecute those whose actions threaten the people and environment of this state."

Adinolfi, 46, who called himself "Dirtman" and has the name tattooed on his left biceps, did not return phone messages.

Adinolfi's plea came almost five years after he began hauling hundreds of truckloads of fill to Eastchester High. It was part of a deal in which the district allowed Adinolfi to dump on school grounds in exchange for creating expanded athletic fields atop the fill, while also helping Eastchester install a low-cost artificial turf field.

Neighbors of the school howled when the dump trucks arrived. They appealed to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which cited Dirtman Enterprises for operating the landfill without proper permits.

Under state law, the school could have accepted the fill without a permit as long as it was clean and no money changed hands. In this case, environmental inspectors found construction debris and also discovered that Adinolfi had been paid to dispose of the material he dumped in Eastchester. He also agreed to help Eastchester prepare its field for the installation of the artificial turf.

"The school district kept insisting nothing was wrong," said William O'Leary, whose property on Water Street abuts the high school fields. "But we kept seeing truckloads with big piles of asphalt and thick black sludge. Anything and everything went into that pit."

Subsequent investigations by state inspectors found that the fill was contaminated with polycyclic hydrocarbons, a common pollutant in urban soils. Under a consent agreement with the state, Eastchester covered the fields with an additional foot of clean fill and conducted groundwater testing. The fields have since been given a clean bill of health.

The school district has a civil lawsuit pending against Dirtman Enterprises, seeking to recoup some of the district's costs, which are well in excess of $500,000.

"We are just delighted that we've got these fields very much completed and in compliance with the consent order," said Eastchester Schools Superintendent Robert Siebert. "We've been using the fields for a couple of years. We are well beyond this."

Adinolfi was involved in fill-for-fields projects in Eastchester, Valhalla and Greenburgh, which were the subject of a scathing 2005 report by former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Hevesi estimated that haulers saved between $1 million and $2 million by being allowed to dump in Eastchester for free.

O'Leary questioned the plea deal struck with Cuomo's office. Spitzer's office had charged Adinolfi with a felony, which could have led to up to four years in prison and fines of up to $75,000 a day per violation. Adinolfi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, resulting in the $25,000 fine and no jail time.

"Considering what he made off the deal, it sounds like a slap in the wrist," O'Leary said.

Cuomo spokesman John Milgrim said the attorney general backed the lesser charge.

"After a subsequent investigation and after reviewing all the fact and circumstances, we agreed to the plea, which we found was appropriate," he said.

Reach David McKay Wilson at dmwilson@lohud.com or 914-694-3