BUSINESS CONVICTED OF ILLEGAL DISPOSAL OF SOLID WASTE

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran announced last week that Spargo Enterprises Corporation, 12107 Brandywine Road, Brandywine Maryland, pled guilty to illegally burying solid waste at a commercial property on Addison Road in Capital Heights. Following the terms of the plea agreement, Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Arthur M. Ahalt required the company to dig up the waste where it is buried, sort through it all, and legally dispose of any material that is not clean soil. Judge Ahalt placed the company on one year’s probation during which time the site clean up is to be performed under the supervision of the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Solid Waste Program. The Judge also suspended a $15,000 fine against the Corporation which could be re-imposed if it fails to complete the clean up as ordered. In addition, the Company’s owner, Donald Spargo, 61, of Brandywine is also liable for payment of the fine and subject to reopening of criminal charges if the work is not done.

According to the statement of facts, from 2000 through 2004 the Addison Road property had become the scene of illegal dumping while it was in the possession of W.C. and A.N. Miller Development Corporation. Photographs from 2003 placed into evidence show that trees protected piles of garbage on the lot near the intersection of Addison and Walker Mill Roads from being seen from the road. The garbage came to the attention of Prince George’s County officials who sought and obtained a clean up order against the W.C. and A.N. Miller Development Corporation. Instead of cleaning up the site, W.C. and A.N. Miller Development Corporation sold the property to Spargo Enterprizes Corp. that happened to own an adjacent property. Spargo operates a tour bus company which parks many of its buses there. Spargo’s purchase agreement specifically required Spargo Enterprizes to clean up the property within six months or it could not take title to the land. Under the Deed of Trust, Prince Georges County had to certify that the property was garbage free. The Defendant Corporation was given six months to complete the clean up.

Although Prince George’s County and Maryland State inspectors saw that the garbage was disappearing from the property, Spargo Enterprizes did not provide receipts for where the garbage was being taken. In September of 2005 a neighboring lot owner complained that graded fill material containing garbage and other solid waste had been pushed onto his property. Subsequent inspection and photographs of the lot revealed that solid waste had been mixed with clean fill dirt and the then graded across the property. The Defendant Corporation admitted that it was responsible for the grading.

The case was investigated by the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Attorney General’s Office with assistance from Prince George ’s County, the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the Maryland State Police.