Superfund kickback scheme a blow to Corzine privatization plan
[Update: The US Justice Department announced additional guilty pleas – see:
FORMER EXECUTIVE OF SOIL REMEDIATION SUB-CONTRACTOR PLEADS GUILTY TO DEFRAUDING THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (12/15/08)
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/press_releases/2008/240413.htm
According to the Star Ledger, the US Justice Department has accepted guilty pleas in a criminal kickback scheme among Superfund toxic site cleanup private contractors:
NJ Governor Jon Corzine – the Administration’s bill to privatize toxic site cleanups in NJ is pending before the legislature
Feds accept guilty pleas in Superfund kickbacks
by Carol Ann Campbell/The Star-Ledger
The owner of a Camden County wastewater treatment supply company and a former contracts administrator pleaded guilty today to big (sic) rigging, fraud and tax charges involving work at two Superfund sites in New Jersey, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The government accepted the pleas from Laurel Springs-based JMJ Environmental Inc., its owner, John Drimak Jr., and Norman Stoerr, a former employee of a contractor that provided environmental remediation services.
The Justice Department said the two and other co-conspirators thwarted the competitive bidding process and defrauded the Environmental Protection Agency through kickback schemes.
The work involved the Federal Creosote Superfund Site in Manville, and Diamond Alkali Superfund Site in Newark. The pleas were entered in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/feds_accept_guilty_pleas_in_su.html
The guilty pleas come at a time when both EPA and DEP toxic site cleanup programs have been under intense criticism and Legislative scrutiny for several controversial botched cleanups and years of delays and inaction at thousands of toxic site aross the state. See: EPA REPORT BLASTS NEW JERSEY TOXIC CLEAN-UPS — State Failures to Enforce Law Lead to Worst Delays in the Country http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1068
Scathing criticism of the DEP cleanup program has prompted the Corzine administration to propose to privatize the cleanup program as a means of reducing the backlogs via a “Licensed Site Professionals” program (LSP). See: NEW JERSEY TO PRIVATIZE POLLUTION REGULATION TO SAVE MONEY — Outsourcing Clean-Ups Is Recipe for More Toxic Disasters, Legislature Told
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1027
The Superfund kickback scheme that defrauded the US Environmental Protection Agency is sure to shed new light on fatal flaws in the Corzine DEP privatization plan.
Lax DEP oversight, millions of dollars in cleanup contracts, and long ignored toxic waste sites are not a context within which to privatize a public cleanup and enforcement obligation. See: NEW JERSEY MODEL FOR PRIVATIZED TOXIC CLEAN-UPS FAILS AUDITS — Serious Violations Found in More than Two-Thirds of Audited Massachusetts Sites http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1034
The EPA Superfund program deals with just 114 sites in NJ – if that federal program can be subject to criminal fraud, how can DEP oversee cleanup contractors at 20,000 sites?
This criminal scheme should prompt a huge vote of no confidence in the Corzine LSP proposal – the public can not trust often corrupt and profit driven private contractors with their health and tax dollars.
Even less trustworthy are corrupt politicans on local redevelopment boards that are entrusted with the state grants and loans for distribution. They choose the contractors/consultants/developers and so are given a golden opportunity to receive kickbacks, “campaign contributions”, and even profit personally from the redevelopment (as in what happens to their own property values as the state makes over the eyesore next to it). These crimes are going on all over the state in the name of “Smart Growth”.