NJ Attorney General opposes PTI for dentist who dumped medical waste

By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, 609-463-6716

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - The Pennsylvania dentist accused of dumping medical waste into the waters off Avalon last summer will not gain entry into the pre-trial intervention program if the state Attorney General�s office has its way.

Standing outside a court room here, Deputy Attorney General Edward Bonanno said his office opposes allowing Thomas McFarland Jr. into the program, but he would not cite the specific reasons why.

McFarland�s defense attorney, Joseph Rodgers, said the state's objections are tied to the impact the dumping had on Avalon and the state as a whole.

"They see it as it affects the quality of New Jersey beaches," Rodgers said.

Rodgers said his client has suffered from depression largely because his wife is suffering from cancer. Her illness, he said, has had a devastating effect on the family.

"I think it was a cry for help frankly," Rodgers said of McFarland's actions.

McFarland will return to court in May when a judge will be asked to compel McFarland's entry into the pre-trial intervention program.

BILL TO TOUGHEN PENALTIES FOR BEACH-DUMPING ADVANCES

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assemblymen Matt Milam and Nelson Albano sponsored to toughen the financial penalties against illegal ocean dumping was released today by an Assembly committee.

The measure was crafted after several South Jersey beaches were forced to close around Labor Day weekend after illegally dumped medical waste washed ashore. As many as 225 syringes and other medical waste were found in Avalon - leading borough officials to close beaches four times. Syringes also washed ashore in Berkeley, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Brigantine and Upper Township.

Thomas McFarland, a Philadelphia dentist who owns a Jersey Shore summer home, was charged Sept. 5 with intentionally dumping the waste that caused the Avalon closings. The source of the other waste is still under investigation.

The measure (A-3271) would double the fines for illegal medical-waste dumping in New Jersey's waters to $100,000-per-day. The lawmakers noted that state penalties for water pollution haven't been updated since 1990, while those for illegal medical waste handling haven't been updated since 1997.

"Polluters who foul our beaches must pay dearly for tarnishing the shore's reputation," said Albano. "The true cost of beach pollution goes far beyond what is spent to actually clean this garbage off the sand, but includes the long-term effects when people decide to use this disgusting episode to decide against visiting our beaches."

"Our beach towns and small businesses are in no position to absorb the financial hit caused by someone's reckless behavior," said Milam. "Polluters should be on the hook not just for environmental damages, but economic damages, too."

The lawmakers said that while the current $50,000-per-day fines allowable under clean water law looks severe, its effectiveness has eroded since enactment in 1990.

Had the penalties kept pace with inflation, the trio noted that the fines would be equal to roughly $82,800 in today's money.

The measure was released by the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee and now goes to the Assembly Speaker, who decides if and when to post it for a vote.

On the Net:
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Behind the scenes as a crew takes on the city's dirtiest job

BY Robert Dominguez
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER



Manny Sosa has already spent a good hour on his hands and knees, steaming and scrubbing and finally getting the best of a stubborn stain on a kitchen floor, when he calls out to his supervisor.

“I got the blood up,” says Sosa, his voice muffled through a hazmat helmet and respirator. “But the skin’s not coming off the tiles.”

“Waddya expect?” answers Ron Gospodarski. “The body was decomposing for a week.”

This is clearly no ordinary cleaning job, and the men spending a sunny day in a Manhattan apartment casually getting rid of a horrific mess are not your average custodial workers.

Like the characters in the movie “Sunshine Cleaning,” opening Friday, Gospodarski’s Queens-based company, Bio-Recovery Corp., specializes in cleaning up the grim and gory aftermath of crime and trauma scenes — everything from murder to suicide to a bloody home accident.

Or, as they’ve been hired to do on this day, tidying, straightening and ultimately sanitizing a one-bedroom rental in Chelsea where the tenant keeled over, died in the kitchen — and was found seven days later after neighbors complained of the smell.

The body of the tenant, a single man in his 40s, was removed days earlier. But the stench of death lingers, thanks to a huge and unsightly stain — a crusty, dark-brown puddle of blood mixed with other bodily fluids on the floor where the man was found.

“You can see the outline of the body,” said Sosa before the cleanup. “He was there so long, some of his hair and skin is stuck in it.”

“This is nothing,” says Gospodarski. “I’ve had jobs where the body fluids seeped through the floorboards and walls of a building for six stories, and then they had an insect infestation. And the suicides are the worst, especially when they use a shotgun.The blood splatters all over, and you’ll find pieces of brain and skull on the other side of the room.”

It may be a dirty job, but Gospodarski and Sosa are glad to do it. Bio-Recovery Corp. is one of only a handful of such companies in the New York area, and the pay is good — not surprising, given the morbid nature of the business.

Gospodarski, 47, is a former New York City paramedic who founded the company in 1998 after realizing there was money to be made in cleaning up the crime and trauma scenes he covered.

“A business owner who had a shooting or stabbing in front of his place would ask who was going to clean up the mess,” says Gospodarski. “The city is supposed to do it when it’s on public property, but they don’t.”

He says he can earn anywhere from $650 to $2,000 for a day’s work, depending on the complexity of the job and how much waste has to be disposed of.

A bag of medical waste, for example, costs $75 to throw away at a dump, while an old mattress soaked with body fluids can cost several hundred dollars to get rid of properly.

“We never turn away business,” says Gospodarski, noting that things have slowed down during these rough economic times.

“In a city like New York, you’d think there’d be no shortage of jobs for companies like us. But the problem is that families or landlords can’t afford to pay for a service like ours.”

Even during boom times, there are the potential health hazards. Bent over the stain and brandishing a high-pressure steam machine, Sosa has to wear a hazmat suit, helmet and respirator to protect himself from inhaling dangerous microbes released into the air by the steam.

“You have to assume that every body had a disease like HIV, TB or hepatitis,” says Gospodarski. “But the biggest danger, of course, is getting a puncture wound from a needle whenever we clean up a drug den.”

Bio-Recovery was involved in cleaning up buildings and offices in New York and Florida exposed to anthrax soon after the 9/11 attacks. But a typical job consists of being hired by a building to clean and sanitize an apartment where someone has died, or by a family that wants to clean out the room of a recently deceased relative.

Other times, they’re paid to remove the immense clutter of junk and garbage left behind by a pack rat who’s been evicted from an apartment.

But that’s tame stuff compared to the job a couple of years ago that left even these seasoned pros gagging in disgust.

“A guy died sitting on a toilet,” recalls Gospodarski, who clearly enjoys telling war stories “He had been there for days, and the toilet was clogged. When Manny reached in to clean out the mess, he came up holding the guy’s intestines. Even I couldn’t take the smell.”

“Yeah, once you bring something up out of the water that’s been there a while, it can smell pretty bad,” adds Sosa.

There are occasions, says Gospodarski, when the job can be emotionally draining. He and Sosa, 29, who joined the company four years ago, have cleaned up after several high-profile crimes, including the multiple murders in a marijuana den above the Carnegie Deli and the shootings in the basement freezer of a Wendy’s restaurant in Queens.

“You definitely need a strong stomach for this line of work,” says Gospodarski. “But you also need to be compassionate and a good listener. We’ve been in homes where a teenager killed himself and the family is devastated, and they reach out to us just to talk.”

It’s also important to be respectful of the dead and nonjudgmental, especially in a city like New York, inhabited by all kinds of people — with all types of lifestyles.

“Sometimes you uncover secrets of how people lived — really crazy stuff no one would believe — but you need to overlook that and just do your job,” says Gospodarski.

“It’s bad enough for a family when someone dies. But they shouldn’t have to find out something they don’t need to know about.”
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