EPA accuses Orange County horse breeders of degrading wetlands

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has accused the owners of a horse training center in Wallkill, Orange County of repeatedly dumping debris on wetlands in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

Williams, acting on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, filed an action seeking restoration of the wetlands and civil penalties, July 20 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.

Maplewood Warmbloods LLC, co-owners Thomas Pushkal and Jennifer Vanover, and Pushkal’s parents, Edward and Frances Pushkal, were charged with filling in about 3.5 acres of wetlands with materials such as asphalt, concrete, PVC piping and glass.

Maplewood Warmbloods did not immediately reply to an email asking for a response to the allegations.

The facility is depicted on its website as an elite center that trains Oldenburg horses “with top gaits and amateur-friendly temperaments,” and as the host of symposiums, clinics and breed and dressage competitions.

From June 2015 to March 2016, according to the complaint, Thomas Pushkal and Vanover allowed construction and demolition materials to be deposited and spread on wetlands at their 58-acre property on Bart Bull Road. The EPA learned of the activity in 2018, inspected the site, and cautioned Pushkal and Vanover that they needed a Clean Water Act permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Pushkal got his parent’s permission to expand Maplewood Warmbloods on their property on Stony Ford Road, the complaint states, and his mother got a permit from the Town of Wallkill to clear, fill and grade a portion of their property.

Despite the EPA warning, the government claims, dump trucks and heavy machinery deposited and spread construction and demolition materials on wetlands while building private access roads on the expansion site from December 2018 to April 2019.

The EPA inspected the site in September 2020 and verified that wetlands were impacted, according to the complaint.

Both sites, the government says, connect to the Wallkill River and require the federal permit. Fill materials can be authorized, if it can be demonstrated that they will not have an adverse impact on the waters.

Maplewood Warmbloods, Vanover, Thomas Pushkal and his parents, according to the complaint, never got the authorization.

The government is asking the court to make the defendants restore the wetlands     at both sites and pay civil penalties for each day of violations. The Clean Water Act authorizes a civil penalty of $37,500 a day before Nov. 3, 2015, and $64,618 per day thereafter.