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It's all in how you look at it...
Getting back to last week's news that the city had settled with the state DEC over alleged dumping of oil and waste at the city's DPW garage and compost facility: readers will recall that a departmental memo, initialed by Director of DPW William McTygue was said to have directed employees to dump sanitary waste at a dump site near the compost facility, leading to some of the violations.
McTygue said the memo was ment to apply only to contaminated construction debris, and not straight sewage -- and only temporarily.
Last week, a concerned citizen dropped off a copy of the memo, that I thought it would be interesting to reproduce it here, and to see what you all think it means.
Before reading the memo, recall that on the eve of the 2007 city elections, president of the pro-Scirocco DPW union, Joe O'Neil, dumped waste at the compost facility, claiming to be following the directions of this memo. The Republican party subsequently used the incident as a football to show alleged disregard for the environment by the McTygue brothers.
Whichever side you fall on, please note that this practice no longer takes place, and such wastes as disucssed in the memo are now trucked to a disposal facility in Warren County.
Was the GOP correct, or was O'Neil bringing a little bit too much of his own interpretation to the memo?
To: Sewer and Water Division -- Field Personnel
From: Bill McTygue, Director
Date: October 1, 2007
Re: Construction Waste Disposal
Gentlemen:
Please take immedaite notice that any construction spoils or waste materials containing sanitary sewage (solid and/or liquid) must be disposed of in the designated area located adjacent to the composting facility. This includes materials from dump trucks, as well as vehcile #76 (Vacon).
These spoils must be carefully deumped onto the provided filter fabric in a manner that avoids damage or tears to the fabric. All spoils should be fully contained on the fabric with no runoff of spills onto unprotected ground.
After placing the spoils on the fabric, the spoils must be covered with a tarp (anchored) to protect it from rain, snow, and wind.
These procedures should be strictly followd when disposing of any construction material(s) containing sanitary sewage or sanitary debris. These procedures are designed to manage disposal in a safe and healthy manner.
Be aware that this is a temporary arrangement until a permanent disposal facility can be constructed in the near future.
If you have any questions, please contact me. Likewise, if you have any doubt about what you are disposing, please call before you dump.
McTygue said the memo was ment to apply only to contaminated construction debris, and not straight sewage -- and only temporarily.
Last week, a concerned citizen dropped off a copy of the memo, that I thought it would be interesting to reproduce it here, and to see what you all think it means.
Before reading the memo, recall that on the eve of the 2007 city elections, president of the pro-Scirocco DPW union, Joe O'Neil, dumped waste at the compost facility, claiming to be following the directions of this memo. The Republican party subsequently used the incident as a football to show alleged disregard for the environment by the McTygue brothers.
Whichever side you fall on, please note that this practice no longer takes place, and such wastes as disucssed in the memo are now trucked to a disposal facility in Warren County.
Was the GOP correct, or was O'Neil bringing a little bit too much of his own interpretation to the memo?
To: Sewer and Water Division -- Field Personnel
From: Bill McTygue, Director
Date: October 1, 2007
Re: Construction Waste Disposal
Gentlemen:
Please take immedaite notice that any construction spoils or waste materials containing sanitary sewage (solid and/or liquid) must be disposed of in the designated area located adjacent to the composting facility. This includes materials from dump trucks, as well as vehcile #76 (Vacon).
These spoils must be carefully deumped onto the provided filter fabric in a manner that avoids damage or tears to the fabric. All spoils should be fully contained on the fabric with no runoff of spills onto unprotected ground.
After placing the spoils on the fabric, the spoils must be covered with a tarp (anchored) to protect it from rain, snow, and wind.
These procedures should be strictly followd when disposing of any construction material(s) containing sanitary sewage or sanitary debris. These procedures are designed to manage disposal in a safe and healthy manner.
Be aware that this is a temporary arrangement until a permanent disposal facility can be constructed in the near future.
If you have any questions, please contact me. Likewise, if you have any doubt about what you are disposing, please call before you dump.
posted by The Saratogian City Desk at
3:24 PM
10 Comments:
I think that almost everybody at the time knew that this was a publicity stunt enginered by the csea and the republican party.Raw sewage was never meant to be disposed of at that site and everybody in the water dept. knew it,and for his actions mr. o'neil was promoted he should have been arrested by the dec.for polution,but instead he's rewarded along with a few others,the mctygues are still being used as scapegoats by the csea and the rep. party at least mctygue stands up to these thugs and saved taxpayers money,if anybody should pay a fine to the dec.it should be val keehan.dave bronner,joe o'neil,cliff starring.the csea and the rep. party..the aboved memo speaks for itself...keep digging andy there's alot more involved here.
You would need to have an IQ lower than 80 to interpret that memo any differently than its original intent. Twice the term "construction" is used to refer to the material. I agree with the above poster. This was clearly a political football that got kicked square in McTygue's face.
Joe O'Neil the current pres.of the csea dpw unit should thank Tom mctygue for the rest of life,after reading the memo from the Director of Public Works regarding what could be disposed at the compost it appears that there was a conspiracy against Mctygue by the csea and others,Andy in the private sector this O'neil character would probably been fired or arrested or both.These are very serious actions, the public deserves a full account of this...was this a conspiracy?
The above posted comments are right on target. An informed public would have to agreebut I would go a step farther and label the dumping of the sewage as a deliberate act of political espionage. Why? Because O'Neil had on other occsssions trucked that kind of load to the county sewer treatment plant and he knew well what he was doing. This kind of reckless action by a public employee should warrant prosecution and dismissal from his job. It was a blatant breach of the public trust and for his action ratherthan being held accountable he was promoted by Scirrocco. Could there be any question that he got a payoff for his rotten deed?
Why not post the memo,so your public can see the hatch job that was done on Mctygue?
Joe O'Neil should be arrested and an investigation begun, He deliberately dumped that sewage knowing full well what he was doing, Scirrocco should know what that was, if he doesn't then he doesn't belong in office, Keeping a guy like that on the payroll is crazy, Skippy start an investigation into the dumping incident before the time limit has run out, Do you have the guts to do it or are you also involved.
anon 6:44:
I'll look into posting the document today. It's a little difficult, because I only have a hard copy, but I should be able to scan it to PDF. Check back later today for a link. AB
All this being said, what will happen now? Possible Lawsuits, from residents of Saratoga Springs and surrounding Towns, who purchased this toxic compose from the City of Saratoga Springs. The Moayor was a fool to make such a quick deal with the State. Is he really a lawyer?
As usual Mc Tygue and his cronies try to point in another direction to get the heat off of him. He has been dumping for years before O'Neill even worked there. Suck it up Tommy Boy!
We're still waiting for the newwspaper article Andrew...Suckooo won the election by running a campaign on lies and the city bought it...mostly as a result of yellow press...know the term andrew? FBI DEC AG,all bullshit, even you are starting to realize that!How about skippy,over seeing a 6 million dollar budget and he never has anything on his agenda,for your information benny o'neil admitted he did wrong,duh.
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