From Staten Island Advance
Waste firms in squabble over
Linden transfer site
One company says owner's lease with a
competitor to handle New York City garbage
violates a previous agreement
December 27, 2000
ADVANCE STAFF REPORT
A Texas-based waste company has filed a federal lawsuit
to block a rival from leasing the site in Linden, N.J.
expected to be used for a transfer station for New York
City trash.
The station is slated to handle about 6,500 tons of city
garbage a day as part of the city's long-term waste
management plan -- the blueprint for what to do with city
trash after the Fresh Kills landfill closes -- approved last
month.
The transfer station would see garbage transferred from
covered barges onto closed railroad cars for shipment
south and west to landfills in other states. It would be
operated by a subsidiary of Browning-Ferris Industries, a
subsidiary of Allied Waste Industries of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Browning-Ferris would lease the site from the Pucillo family
of New Jersey, once prominent in the New Jersey
solid-waste industry.
Waste Management Holding Inc. of Houston, which bought
several waste-related companies in Hillside, N.J. from the
Pucillo family in November 1998, has filed a lawsuit against
Domenick Pucillo and his brother, Chester, charging they
violated a non-competition clause by agreeing to lease the
Linden property to Browning-Ferris for the transfer station,
according to published reports.
Waste Management runs six trash transfer sites in New
Jersey, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported. The lawsuit
was filed on Aug. 29 in federal District Court in Newark,
N.J.
The Pucillos, once owners of a string of solid waste
companies, left the garbage business after battles with
state environmental officials that resulted in $1 million in
fines. In 1998 they sold their last two companies, based in
Hillside, to Eastern Environmental Inc., now a subsidiary of
Waste Management. At that time they agreed not to go
into any competing business within 75 miles of Hillside for
three years, according to a copy of the non-competition
clause that was attached to the lawsuit.
Waste Management claims the Pucillos' deal with
Browning-Ferris violates that agreement, and has asked
U.S. District Judge Nicholas H. Politan to void the lease. A
hearing has been set for Jan. 8.
The clause does not specifically mention a lease
arrangement, but it does state that the Pucillos cannot
"promote or assist financially or otherwise, any person,
firm, partnership, corporation or other entity whatsoever" in
competing with Waste Management.
The answer to the lawsuit has been sealed at the request
of Gerald Krovatin, Pucillo's lawyer.
Krovatin told the Star-Ledger he was confident the lawsuit
would fail, because the non-compete agreement is not
relevant to his clients' role as landlord of the transfer
station. "Our position is that Domenick Pucillo is the
manager and owner of the real estate and landlord who has
leased his land to tenants. The Pucillos are not operating
the business," said Krovatin.
The 50-acre site in Linden is owned by the mayor's
son-in-law, according to the Star-Ledger. Domenick
Pucillo's wife is the daughter of Linden Mayor John
Gregorio.
Pucillo made an offer to buy the 50-acre Tremley Point
property in the fall of 1999. After New York announced in
May that Linden was its chosen site for the transfer
station, Pucillo closed on the purchase for $8.75 million
through a company called Tremley Point Marine Terminal
LLC. His lawyer on the deal was Paul M. Weiner, law
partner of Union County power broker and state Sen. Ray
Lesniak.
The Tremley Point project, which is estimated to bring
between $3 million and $5 million a year in fees to the city
of Linden, has been approved by the Linden and New York
City councils and the Union County Board of Freeholders.
It is now awaiting permits from the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection.
A spokesman for Allied Waste told the New York Times
the lawsuit names only the Pucillos as a defendant, and
does not affect Browning-Ferris's agreement with New York
City or the company's lease arrangement with Pucillo.
Elimination of the Linden transfer station would mean
having to find another way to dispose of up to 6,500 tons of
trash a day, according to Martha Hirst, deputy
commissioner for long-term planning in the city Department
of Sanitation. Ms. Hirst has said she is confident the
lawsuit will not interfere with the deadline for the Fresh
Kills' closing.
The transfer station is not expected to begin operating
before the landfill closes, which may happen as early as
June. Ms. Hirst said the short-term policy of hauling trash
by truck could be extended in the event of any delays.
Waste Management lost out in its own bid to handle New
York garbage through transfer stations it proposed in
Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Company officials would
not say whether Waste Management would again seek
contracts for the New York garbage business if their
lawsuit succeeds, the Star-Ledger reported.
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