Two Pelham businesses have sued an environmental cleanup company for $1 million for allegedly failing to completely remediate a former gas station property.
Component Assembly Systems Inc. and Youth Study Basketball LLC accused Elite Environmental Services Inc. of negligence, fraud and breach of contract on Dec. 23 in Westchester Supreme Court. The complaint also charges Gerald and Bradley Lambert, of New Rochelle, who sold the property.
“Despite representing … that the property had been property remediated,” the complaint states, it was found to “contain significant contamination.”
The property is at 632-636 5th Avenue, Pelham, next to a regional office of Component, a national carpentry contractor that has worked on major projects, such as Yankee Stadium.
In 2009, the Lamberts sold the property to Component for $850,000. In 2015, Component sold it to Youth Study Basketball (YSB) for $1.2 million. Both businesses are based at Component’s offices at 620 Fifth Ave., Pelham.
Part of the site is in New Rochelle, and according to the city’s development records, YSB wants to build an employee training facility there.
The Lamberts had agreed to leave the land free of hazardous materials when they sold it to Component, the complaint states, and they hired Elite Environmental Services to remove underground gas tanks and contaminated soil.
In late 2009, Elite filed a report with the state Department of Environmental Conservation attesting that all petroleum contaminated soils had been removed and properly disposed, and that “site conditions present no threat to human health or the environment.”
Component and YSB say they relied on the assurances when they bought the property.
But when YSB began excavating earlier this year, according to the complaint, an underground tank and significant contamination were found.
Component and YSB are demanding at least $1 million that YSB claims it spent to complete the cleanup.
Efforts to contact Elite Environmental for its side of the story were unsuccessful. According to a state business record, Elite was dissolved in 2010.
