Two men accused of dumping so much asbestos debris that they created their own Superfund site have been handed prison sentences and ordered to pay hefty fines.
According to Syracuse's The Post-Standard, federal prosecutors had accused Dominick Mazza and Cross NiCastro of being part of a conspiracy to dump friable asbestos at a 28-acre farm site NiCastro owned in Frankfort, N.Y. Mazza's company Mazza & Sons Inc. was one of two New Jersey solid-waste disposal businesses involved in the dumping.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd sentenced Mazza to a prison term of more than four years; NiCastro received nearly three years of prison time. Judge Hurd also ordered Mazza's company to pay $492,494 in restitution and a $100,000 fine.
Over the course of three months in 2006, the men dumped over 60 million tons of demolition debris at the farm, which runs along a river, according to NBC News. Much of that waste contained asbestos from demolished homes and other buildings in New Jersey.
The defendants "flouted numerous federal laws designed to protect Americans from exposure to toxic materials when they dumped asbestos-contaminated waste into an area that included sensitive wetlands," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Ignacia Moreno told NBC News.
Evidence showed that the men planned to continue the illegal dumping for five years, which would have resulted in hundreds of millions of pounds of asbestos-containing material at the site.
Exposure to friable asbestos can lead to a number of serious illnesses, including mesothelioma cancer.
If you or someone in your family has been diagnosed with mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos, contact Sokolove Law for a free case consultation today to see if a mesothelioma lawyer can help you.
