Ben Weitsman & Son faces Sierra Club lawsuit

The Sierra Club, an environmental organization with headquarters in Oakland, California, has sued Weitsman Recycling, alleging that the scrap recycler has not taken adequate steps to protect against stormwater discharge from its facility in Albany, New York. According to the suit, Sierra Club states that stormwater discharge can wash into streams and rivers, including the Hudson River.

The lawsuit was filed May 11 in the U.S. Federal Northern District Court of New York.

“Defendants engage in industrial activities such as storage and processing of scrap metal, metal shredding, vehicle maintenance and vehicle traffic in and out of the facilities. As precipitation comes into contact with pollutants generated by these industrial activities, it conveys those pollutants to nearby surface waters,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the lawsuit, Sierra Club says it has been reaching out to Weitsman Recycling since January about federal and state clean water violations with no response from the scrap recycler.

Adam Weitsman, owner of Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling in Owego, New York, tells Recycling Today that the Sierra Club has never actually inspected or visited the company's Albany facility.

“They think the Albany facility is on the water, which we’re not actually on the water,” Weitsman says. “They’ve never inspected our facility. They are saying that we’re discharging into the river, but we’re not even on the river. Our facility is over 5,000 feet away from the water."

He continues, “We’re also a fully paved facility that has detention ponds on-site. It’s one of the most environmentally compliant facilities on the East Coast. We’ve been working with the [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation or DEC] to upgrade that facility to meet new regulations. We’ve been working with the DEC for four or five months. We have things already in place for us to make improvements. The company has been working hand in hand with the DEC since long before the letter was received.”

Weitsman says improvements to its Weitsman Recycling sites will include enlarging detention ponds and ensuring more scrap materials on-site are enclosed. The company also will put in more oil separating units to treat stormwater runoff.

He concludes, “We understand that Sierra Club wants clean water. I want that as well. I’ve had no complaints about the facility from neighbors, but we are in the scrap industry. We knew this was coming down the line, which is why we were proactive and started upgrading a long time before we received [the Sierra Club lawsuit].”