Above: Piles of earth surrounded by hay bales and covered with tarps dot William Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property in Shandaken on July 11. They are part of the remediation of a chemical spill on his property. Photo by Julia Reischel.
A large chemical spill was discovered last month on land in the town of Shandaken owned by Catskills junkyard operator William Hrazanek. The spill occurred near a tributary of the Esopus Creek.
In an incident that appears to be related, several of Hrazanek's junkyards in Fleischmanns, across the county line in Delaware County, were raided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on July 9.
Despite Freedom of Information Law requests by the Watershed Post, neither the DEC nor the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have released any information about the chemical spill, nor have they indicated whether nearby wells or the Esopus Creek were contaminated.
On June 12, the Shandaken Police Department received a call about strong chemical fumes emanating from an abandoned property on Wittenberg Road. In the police report, the fumes are described by the caller as "smelling like butane."
Hrazanek owns three properties near Wittenberg Road, none of them with street addresses listed in the Ulster County property listings database. In the Ulster County GIS database, a parcel listed as belonging to Hrazanek runs along the east side of Wittenberg Road between Schuhose Road and Carle Road. It is tax parcel 25.15-2-24.
According to neighbors, intense chemical fumes had wafted down Wittenberg Road for about a week before the call was made. Several neighbors reported that the smell made their eyes water.
"All of a sudden, one day, there was this really strong smell," said Joshua Luborsky, a realtor who lives down the street from the spill site. "We stopped the car and said, 'What is that smell?' It smelled like acetone. Something really chemical-ey. As soon as you got that section of the road, you could smell it. It was intense."
On June 13, according to neighbors, first responders and environmental officers from the DEC and DEP swarmed Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property. According to multiple sources, at least one first responder at the scene became dizzy from the fumes.
Since June 13, the spill site has undergone extensive remediation.
Luborsky said that Conklin Services & Construction Inc. in Newburgh used excavators, chemical testers, and series of baffles installed in ditches to clean the site.
"They're pulling out enough dirt to bury six or seven SUVs," he said.
Last Thursday, almost a month after the initial spill investigation, Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property was covered with flags, trenches containing drainage pipes, and large piles of newly-dug earth. Drainage ditches leading from the property to a tributary of the Esopus Creek contained white baffles.
Above: Baffles line a drainage ditch along William Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property in Shandaken on July 11. Photo by Julia Reischel.
Above: Hay bales line a plastic-bordered trench filled with pipes on William Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property on July 11. Photo by Julia Reischel.
Above: A baffle installed in a tributary of the Esopus Creek near the chemical spill at William Hrazanek's Wittenberg Road property in Mount Tremper. Photo taken on July 11 by Julia Reischel.
Several houses and other structures on the property are in disrepair. Abandoned cars are visible parked behind them in the woods.
According to Shandaken Police Detective Fred Holland, the Wittenberg Road spill is now under the jurisdiction of the DEC.
Luborsky, who lives with his young children downhill from the spill site, wants to organize a class action lawsuit against Hrazanek. Luborsky is concerned about the quality of his well water, and worries that his property values will be affected by the spill.
"If [Hrazanek] has assets, they should be gotten and used to test everybody's wells," he said. "It really bums me out to think that some guy who owns land up here and owns a junkyard brought his junkyard crap and dumped it here. It's like, 'Let me go shit in the neighbors' yard.' There are so many people that are trying to do the right thing. He's trying to do the wrong thing."
Attempts to contact Hrazanek for this story were unsuccessful.
Click here for our growing collection of public documents about William Hrazanek.
Correction: In describing the location of the spill, an earlier version of this story cited a Shandaken Police report that described chemical fumes emanating from "a driveway across the street from 1442 Wittenberg Road." The police report incorrectly described the location of the spill, which is on the east side of Wittenberg Road. To see the exact location of the remediation site, search the Ulster County GIS database for tax parcel number 25.15-2-24.
7/16/13 Update: The DEC released the location of the spill to the Daily Freeman and then to the Watershed Post today. It was located at 1420 Wittenberg Road. Here is the full statement from DEC Region spokesperson Wendy Rosenbach:
DEC received a report of a spill, odors and sheen in drainage ditch at 1420 Wittenberg Road, on June 13, 2013. At this point, the spill cleanup is nearing completion and is being monitored. The material spilled is suspected to be waste gasoline based upon analytical data gathered and analyzed to date. Investigation of the spill incident is continuing.
