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Former CEO of Lawrence Aviation Industries (LAI) Gerald Cohen was found guilty of discharging hazardous substances at LAI’s Port Jefferson facility. The court determined that LAI and Cohen were responsible for $48,116,024.31 in costs incurred by the EPA in cleaning up the site.
Cohen and LAI were both assessed a $750,000 fine as well for their failure to comply with requests for information from the EPA.
According to U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue, Cohen and LAI have a long history of disregarding federal, state and local environmental law.
In the 1980s, when the Suffolk County Department of Health issued a series of recommendations for LAI to come into compliance with various pollution control laws, LAI used a front-end loader to crush 55-gallon drums containing hazardous substances - among more than 1,600 of such drums identified on the property - resulting in a massive discharge of waste directly onto the ground.
Samples taken from those drums revealed “impermissibly high levels” of trichloroethylene (TCE), as well as other pollutants. Nearly two decades later, in 1999, testing performed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation revealed contamination of groundwater and surface water at the site. In March 2000, the site was placed on the National Priorities List.
Donoghue noted that EPA is now into its 19th year of the cleanup, which has included “an exhaustive remedial investigation into the nature and scope of the contamination, various hazardous waste removal and stabilization activities, and the implementation and maintenance of two groundwater treatment systems designed to capture and treat contaminated groundwater.”
In 2008, Cohen and LAI pleaded guilty to violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for storing hazardous wastes at the facility without a permit issued by the state or the EPA.
“EPA is pleased that our collaborative efforts with the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York have resulted in a victory for New Yorkers who have suffered for years with the environmental degradation inflicted by Lawrence Aviation and its owner, Gerald Cohen,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Pete Lopez stated.
“This judgment provides for the reimbursement of money spent on cleanup work and imposes penalties that act as a deterrent. Our active engagement and work at this site will continue over the long-term, and we are proud that EPA’s Superfund continues to help revitalize this community and communities across the nation.”
Donoghue added, “this case and the significant monetary penalties imposed by the Court should serve as a warning to would-be polluters, including individuals, that this Office and the EPA will use every tool at their disposal to protect Long Island’s groundwater and to ensure that those responsible for contamination will foot the bill for clean-up costs,”
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