A history of illegal dumping in Orange County, NY

In 1997, Middletown High School students produced a 54 minute documentary about organized crime and corruption in the toxic waste hauling industry.

Some statements from Garbage, Gangsters, and Greed…
produced at Middletown High School.

“When these garbage trucks first came in, over twenty years ago, I told my wife, they’re all Mafia owned, I’ll lay you money on it… now I knew that twenty years ago. You mean these college educated people who are in the business don’t know… and the politicians don’t know?”
– Dutch Smith, former Town of Wallkill landfill operator

“I used to go up and down all the highways and you’d see the State Police going past, and they never bothered us… we used to go past the scales, and there wasn’t a load, open box or packed rubbish, that wasn’t way over loaded.”
– Charlie Oetzel, former driver for Mongelli owned carting company, ISA of New Jersey

“I was like someone hit me in the face with a bat, I could not believe what I was hearing and I didn’t understand why…these are the people who told me to go out there and uphold the law, now you’re telling me not to uphold the law, do it the way I tell you to do it.”
– Armondo Bilancione, first Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to the Orange County landfill

“This problem, after all, was created by carting companies who are controlled by organized crime. They were, in disposing of this hazardous waste illegally, acting under the direction of organized crime figures in New York City. So why would you hire someone (Tully Co.) to remediate the situation, when that person is also allegedly associated with organized crime?”
– Congressman Maurice Hinchey

“And then you see these pictures of all those colors in the water leaving the site (Wallkill)…and you realize that the site has never been properly studied. They don’t know what’s in it. They don’t know where it went, and it makes you wonder just what they do know about this site.”
– Ward Stone, DEC wildlife pathologist