Compost piles at Calverton tree farm prompt odor complaints and DEC probe

The view of a quiet tree nursery from Bob Hering’s 6-acre farm tucked off a winding road in Calverton is now obstructed by towering piles of compost.

Hering and his neighbors on Youngs Avenue say the piles are not only unsightly but also fouling the air and forcing them indoors with windows shut, thwarting backyard plans and triggering health issues among residents and livestock. 

“The stench of this stuff has not just affected me, it has affected the whole neighborhood,” Hering said recently from his property, where he raises horses, goats and chickens. “My animals, I can’t shelter them from the smell. Their eyes are running, their noses are discharging.”

Since May, residents have complained to Riverhead Town and state officials about the smells, dust, heavy truck traffic and surge in pests stemming from the 45-acre tree farm where the owner's attorney said they are taking in "organic material." Riverhead's code allows active farms to import up to 3,000 cubic yards of organic material, such as compost, per year, but Erik Howard, the town attorney, said there is "no ongoing agricultural production" there.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is probing the materials at the site, the agency recently confirmed to Newsday.

The property, once a Warner Nursery tree farm, was purchased by Youngs Ave. LLC last year for $1.7 million, according to Suffolk County property records. The corporation is registered with New York State to Joseph DeFigueroa, who owns Patriot Recycling in Oceanside. The Nassau facility accepts construction and demolition debris, and yard waste, and sells fill dirt, topsoil, mulch and compost, according to its website. 

DeFigueroa secured a town permit to reestablish a tree farm at the property in February, but town officials and neighbors said no planting has occurred yet. Instead, Hering and his neighbors say, the site is being used as a dumping ground masquerading as a farm.

Steven Losquadro, an attorney for DeFigueroa, said while there are already trees there, new plantings are planned. 

Under state DEC regulations, a registration is required to compost between 3,000 and 10,000 cubic yards of yard trimmings, and a permit is needed if the volume exceeds 10,000. The DEC investigation includes measuring the stockpiles on site and verifying their contents, officials said. 

Stop-work order

A flurry of complaints led Riverhead code enforcement officers to post a stop-work order at the property, and the owner was issued 11 violations ranging from littering to violating the stop order on July 30, according to records obtained by Newsday through a Freedom of Information Law request.

The town is considering cracking down on the dumping further and ordering the piles removed, Howard said in an interview. 

“They were just dumping and dumping, one truck after the other, blocking the road here,” Hering said. “I think [DeFigueroa] thought, ‘Oh, this is in the middle of nowhere. I can start dumping some stuff here, and no one's gonna say nothing.’”

Losquadro said his client has hired Rich Sipala, a Middle Island farmer who owns Longwood Farms, to plant trees at the site.  

Sipala did not return requests for comment. But Losquadro, based in Rocky Point, said only "organic materials" are being brought in, which is allowed under the company's use permit.

Losquadro declined to say where the material was being imported from, but that it consisted of leaves and grass clippings that will be used to feed new seedlings. New plantings are planned this fall, he said.

“Trees are not like planting lettuce,” he said. “You’re planting trees only at certain times of the year.”

Trading blame

The site lies within the town’s Agricultural Protection Zone as protected farmland. Under Riverhead Town code, agricultural operations are allowed to import up to 3,000 cubic yards of organic material annually to support farming at the site.

Howard questioned the site’s compliance and whether imported materials are beyond the permissible storage limits.

Howard said in an interview town code doesn’t allow for processing of composted materials. 

“My position on it at this point is really that the piles need to be removed because it’s not immediately usable,” he said. “One way or the other, that material’s going to have to come off site.”

Losquadro defended against claims that his client’s compost piles are causing the foul odors, instead blaming them on the nearby Crown Recycling facility, which was destroyed by a fire on June 4.

“People are complaining about odors. Right next door was a dump. It was a solid municipal waste site that had garbage, and it burned. So of course there were odors,” Losquadro said. “The smell must have been very offensive to those who were nearby.”

Officials deemed the cause of that fire to be “undetermined,” according to Riverhead Fire Marshal Liam Keating.

'Intolerable' smells

Dozens of neighbors have raised concerns with the town about the potential effects the large piles could have on groundwater and air quality. Others have reported seeing garbage in the piles, including plastic bags, bottles and food wrappers. 

“We want it gone. We don't know what’s in that material,” said Toqui Terchun, president of the Greater Calverton Civic Association. “We can see plastic and it stinks to high heaven.”

Steven Aupperle, who lives across the street with his wife, Molly, said in an interview  summer got off to a smelly start that “just inundated us with a chemical smell. It was intolerable.”

Aupperle, 35, said since the dumping began, his wife developed respiratory issues, including frequent nosebleeds.

The civic group has called for testing at the site, including groundwater monitoring.

“Ultimately, we don't want this material bogging up our water,” Aupperle said. “Our groundwater is sensitive as it is.”

At town board meetings, other neighbors have reported headaches, allergies and seeing pests that hadn’t been an issue on their properties before, including rats, flies and cockroaches.

Aphrodite Montalvo, a spokeswoman for the DEC, said the agency inspected the site on July 30 “to observe site conditions including measurement of stockpiles for volume determination, and verification of the contents of materials on-site.” She said the results are under review.

Montalvo declined to comment on the site’s compliance, citing the ongoing review.

Losquadro said the DEC testing is welcome, and DeFigueroa will comply with the agency's guidelines for storing organic compost.

“If you have grass clippings and leaves, unfortunately if somebody threw a plastic Coca-Cola bottle and it got caught up, that might be an outlier,” Losquadro said. “To the extent that the town is looking to verify that and get further confirmation of that is a good thing for everyone.”

DeFigueroa is due in town justice court on Sept. 9, according to the violations.

Meanwhile, Howard said he anticipates meeting with Sipala and town planning officials to discuss their plans and "identify a timeline for limited and monitored permitted activities while the stop order remains posted. I am not inclined to recommend removal of the stop order until the material imported has been addressed.”

Though the stop order has helped, neighbors' concerns haven't abated.

“My hope is that we can coexist. … But it comes to a point where if you start to infringe on our ability to use our backyard or our front porch or drink a nice coffee in the morning on the back porch, it’s not right,” Aupperle said. “If we catch the wrong wind, we still occasionally smell it.”