After more than a decade of legal wrangling and at least two state investigations, a former employee’s case alleging retaliation after he reported years of toxic-waste mismanagement at the former Covanta waste-to-energy plant in Westbury ended last month in a verdict in favor of the company, court records show.
The case, brought in 2013 by former employee Patrick Fahey against Covanta, now known as Reworld, charged the company improperly combined waste ash for shipment to the Brookhaven Landfill from 2006 to 2014. While a state investigation launched by Gov. Kathy Hochul uncovered hundreds of instances of trucks carting improperly mixed ash, the court case last month centered on Fahey’s claim that the company fired him in retaliation for whistleblowing. A jury in State Supreme Court in Mineola on June 20 ultimately rejected that claim.
Fahey, who now lives in Westchester, had sought more than $3 million in lost compensation after his firing, which the company maintained was unrelated to his allegations against the company. Fahey’s 2013 lawsuit was also filed on behalf of New York State, the towns of Brookhaven and Hempstead, the Village of Garden City and LIPA, saying they’d each been wronged by the company’s alleged improper practices.
But State Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo ultimately dismissed the cases on behalf of LIPA, Hempstead and Garden City, and later approved a $1 million settlement between Reworld and Brookhaven Town. Lawyers for Fahey have appealed those...
The Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has called out the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, for peddling falsehoods about Mahama'...