Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon announced that Arias G. Schwarz, 33, of Woodbury pled guilty to Unlawful Release of Solid Waste to the Environment, an Environmental Conservation Law Class "A" Misdemeanor.

"A condition of the plea was that payment of restitution in the amount of $81,521.95 would be paid by Schwarz. Thirty thousand dollars was paid (payable to Nassau County) and the balance of $51,521.95 will be paid at the time of his sentencing on June 24, 2005," said Dillon. "In addition, we recommended that Schwarz be sentenced to pay a $15,000 fine under the Environmental Conservation Law. The restitution will be used by the Nassau County Public Works Department to remove and dispose of the construction and demolition material from the recharge basin area and also to replace the trees and fence that Schwarz damaged and destroyed."

According to Dillon, during June 2004, Schwarz unlawfully disposed of approximately 850 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris and fill onto Nassau County land (Recharge Basin #456) in Woodbury, which is located adjacent to his property. The area in question measured approximately 100 feet by 600 feet, with the height of the fill ranging between 5 and 20 feet. In addition, Schwarz destroyed a county fence measuring 330 feet and unlawfully removed approximately 75 trees from the area.

"This investigation stemmed from a complaint that our office received in June 2004 from a Nassau County Department of Public Works Hydrogeoligist who was checking on the recharge basin when he noticed the damage," said Dillon. "On June 25, our investigator observed a large dump truck pulling up to the entrance of the recharge basin access road. The driver of the truck indicated that his boss had told him to take the 40 cubic yards of soil to the Woodbury site and that he had previously delivered six or seven 30-cubic-yard truckloads to the same site over the past few weeks. The driver had said that the debris had come from an excavation site in Brooklyn."

Dillon continued, "An environmental crime such as this has many victims, including the residents of Nassau County. The defendant in this case put the health and welfare of his neighbors in danger by having approximately 850 cubic yards of construction waste dumped on not only his property but on the property of the Nassau County taxpayers. Making the matter worse, the dump site was located just above a county recharge basin, which would cause remnants from the debris and fill to run into the recharge basin after a rain storm."