By Jonpaul Dagostino and Sharvani Regmi
SUNY Brockport
BROCKPORT, N.Y. — Brockport residents have spent the last three years voicing concerns over suspicious construction activities at 180 South Ave. conducted by Earthborn Materials. Residents claim that the projects carried out by Earthborn pose health risks, and violate zoning and environmental laws.
Earthborn Materials, a subsidiary of Brockport-based Earthtech Developers, was established to repurpose waste materials from construction sites. Earthtech, a development firm, primarily focuses on commercial site work.
Since 2023, Brockport residents have been attending Village Board meetings to express their concerns regarding construction activities at 180 South Ave. by Earthborn Materials.
South Ave. resident, Kim Eallonardo is among those who have accused Earthborn of allowing multiple health violations at the site.
“Missing is any authority or attention given to health or environmental impact of such a facility in the area of homes with women, children, and the elderly,” Eallonardo said. “Wood dust, bio-aerosol, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, pigments, these exposures are not hypothetical, studies from the WHO, APA, NIH, and the European Environmental Agency reports around wood processing, compositing, and waste handling facilities document elevated risk of disease and illness.”
President of Earthtech Developers, Aaron Bower denied that any health risks are present.
“I don’t believe that any material on this site has any risk to cause any health concerns,” Bower said. “We abide by every safety regulation that we are required to on site at these projects.”
Residents have raised concerns about potential environmental impacts, as residents have noticed the surrounding area was being excavated, noting the need for a thorough assessment of the site.
“It was verified that an environment assessment was never submitted with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,” Eallonardo said. “Residents are ready to file a memorandum with the Monroe County Department of Health or the New York State DEC to document credible scientific evidence of potential harms”
However, Brockport Village Zoning Code Enforcement Officer Chad Fabry said that no environmental regulations were violated.
“They have not broken any environmental laws,” Fabry said. “They did comply with environmental policies.”
Another big proponent of resident feedback is apparent zoning violations committed at 180 South Ave such as a violating a zoning order, lights exceeding maximum brightness, and possessing organic matter.
In 2023, the Zoning Board of Appeals ruled that Earthtech could maintain no more than eight stockpiles of soil, fallen trees, brush, concrete, and other materials. However, residents have since documented more than eight stockpiles on the site and reported additional violations to the state, including excessively bright lighting and noise occurring outside permitted work hours
Fabry claimed that no one was on site when noise complaints were reported.
“I don’t know how many offhand, five or six, seven noise complaints. As soon as we got a complaint, my coworker and I drove over to the site.” Fabry said. “Every time we got a noise complaint, we drove there immediately there was nobody on site,”
Fabry also said while the lights were too bright, and they did posses organic matter, no major laws were broken.
“They’ve had code violations where, your lights are too bright, and they fixed those, and they were bringing in too much organic matter. I asked them to get it out, they took it out,” Fabry said. “So breaking laws, they’ve never broken any law that was worth prosecuting.”
The New York State Supreme Court ruled unanimously 5-0 that Earthtech must cease and desist all activity at 180 South Ave, and must have the site cleaned up by Dec. 12.
Earthtech is currently clearing up their yard as per the cease-and-desist letter.
“We received a cease-and-desist letter that we had to clean up the yard, and in doing so we are on track to meet the deadline,” Bower said. “We have made serious progress. It is a very weather sensitive operation so we work based on the weather, and it is our goal to meet the deadline.”
Despite being on track to have the construction site cleared up by the deadline imposed by the court, Earthtech will likely face continued resident frustrations over the situation. Brockport area residents will have the chance to voice their concerns over Earthtech’s future at a Village Planning Board meeting on Dec. 8.
