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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 11:05 pm 

Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:22 pm
Posts: 65
Location: Northwest Indiana
I heard this on the local radio station this afternoon;


Whiting Man Accused of Removing Monon Bridge Sent Violation Letter from IDEM

POSTED BY REGION NEWS TEAM ON JULY 28, 2015 | 5:32 PM IN REGION NEWS

A Whiting man accused of removing the Monon Bridge in Hammond without a permit has been sent a violation letter from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The Times reports the letter was sent today and states steel was discovered in the Grand Calumet River during an inspection on July 17th.

According to the article, Kenneth Morrison has 30 days to respond on how he plans to resolve the issue.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 12:51 am 

Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm
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It sounds like they want him to remove the steel from the water.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:34 am 

Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm
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http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews ... 2b.pdf.pdf

pdf file of the violation letter.

It states CSX as the owner of the bridge, surprised they have done nothing. or nothing publicly.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:18 am 

Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/scrapper-who-took-monon-bridge-was-convicted-for-oil-spill/article_7c10fbab-32db-5af6-aca8-bc501226c4c6.html

Quote:

This photo, taken last January, shows the Monon Bridge under demolition. Local, state and federal officials said the work took place without the necessary permits. The Hammond Historical Society unveiled the man responsible had a criminal record for spilling oil and tar into a Pennsylvania river.

The scrapper who’s been cited for removing the Monon Bridge from the Grand Calumet River did prison time for spilling thousands of gallons of oil and tar into a Philadelphia river in the 1990s.

The Hammond Historical Society officials revealed recently that back in 1995, Kenneth Morrison was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $50,000 after he attempted to salvage a metal tank and ended up discharging 2,000 gallons of waste oil into the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania, and another 3,000 into the ground.

The cleanup of the 1993 spill cost an estimated $1.3 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Morrison, a Whiting resident who told The Times Media Co. last February he could take the Monon Bridge because it was “like a shipwreck,” had told investigators in Pennsylvania he didn’t report the spill into the Schuylkill because it “wasn’t a big deal,” according to Inquirer archives.

He could not be reached for comment. A listing for his home number was disconnected.

He’s under a criminal investigation for violating Indiana water quality standards, since the demolition of the Monon Bridge sent creosote-soaked railroad ties into the river.

Morrison had identified himself as the owner of LaSalle Central Contracting when he first approached Hammond about scrapping the Monon Bridge in 1991.

He was operating as the owner of LaSalle Central Contracting in Pennsylvania in the early 1990s when he was dismantling large industrial tanks that contained an estimated 100,000 gallons of waste oil and tar.

Investigators identified his scrap-metal salvaging operation as the source of the spill after people started calling authorities about an oil sheen that spread down the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

Morrison faced a potential sentence of up to 41 years in prison and a $2.25 million fine, but ended up being sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to violating clean water laws, as part of a plea agreement.

“We did an investigation on this guy and he’s a convicted felon,” said Richard Barnes, with the Hammond Historical Society.

“His whole attitude was, it was abandoned and I could take it. But he really can’t. He’s a crook. He’s a noted crook.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Morrison was indicted after salvaging without a permit or taking proper precautions.

Local authorities said Morrison did not get permission or permits last year before dismantling the Monon Bridge over the Grand Calumet River, which was built in 1909 for the now-abandoned Monon Railroad and which was one of only two bascule bridges remaining in the Region.


Hammond — which was deeded the bridge by the railroad company — said he couldn’t scrap it in October 2014, but he went ahead and did it anyway last year.

“I myself state that this property is abandoned,” Morrison told The Times Media Co. last February. “It’s like a shipwreck. If a ship sinks, that’s abandoned, and it’s fair game.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is now reviewing whether to press charges, Hammond Environmental Management Director Ronald Novak said.

Barnes, who estimates the scrap value of the bridge was around $340,000, questions why Hammond didn’t investigate Morrison’s background and stop him the first time he was caught undertaking a demolition, but Novak said he immediately notified all state and federal agencies as soon as he learned of the unauthorized scrapping.

“After I received an anonymous complaint, I went out and investigated,” Novak said.

“Then I immediately turned it over to the appropriate authorities: the U.S. EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The first day we got a complaint, we called within minutes. I was the low man on the totem pole.”


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:44 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:29 pm
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Location: Youngstown, OH
"He’s under a criminal investigation for violating Indiana water quality standards, since the demolition of the Monon Bridge sent creosote-soaked railroad ties into the river."

What about the thousands of timber pile trestles still in existence? Isn't that creosote in direct contact with a stream?

And does creosote really leach out of the wood enough to cause a significant problem?

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inside Conrail caboose 21747


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 12:36 pm 

Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:58 pm
Posts: 1346
Location: Chicago USA
He steals an entire bridge and the best they can do is hit him up for water pollution? Why is he not indicted for grand theft and various other felonies?


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:08 pm 

Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm
Posts: 2226
https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6951#

Quote:
CELOTEX FACILITY

Philadelphia, PA | 1993-Jun-21

Initial Notification: On June 21, 1993, the USCG MSO in Philadelphia received a report from a tug boat captain through the National Response Center of an oil sheen in the Schuylkill River. The sheen size was reportedly 200 feet by 1/2 mile. At the time of the report the air temperature was 85?F, skies were overcast, and winds were southwest at 10 to 15 knots. A Marine Environmental Protection Team went to the scene and traced the source of the sheen to the former CELOTEX facility. The MSO hired cleanup contractors for this federally funded cleanup; the facility owner refused to take responsibility. Contractors placed boom in the water and began steam cleaning bulkheads, riprap, and pilings. Oil-soaked soil leaking through a bulkhead proved to be the source of the slick. Found on the site were twenty-three tanks containing unknown product and sludge, three unmarked drums, bags of asbestos waste, hundreds of bales of shredded paper and other garbage, and two five-inch artillery shells. Two tanks were unstable and many were without tops or had holes cut in them. The USCG contacted the Philadelphia Bomb Squad to remove the artillery shells and was contacted by the Philadelphia Environmental Crimes Unit concerning other possible legal infractions at the site. An incident-specific RRT was convened. It took two months to stabilize the site for possible hand-off to State or Federal EPA for long-term site remediation. USCG district 5. Keyword: bioremediation, ground truth, high-pressure warm-water washing, reoiling, sorbent boom, sorbent pompoms.
Incident Details
Products of concern: mixed heavy oils
Latitude (approximate): 39° 56.50′ North
Longitude (approximate): 75° 12.20′ West
On-Water Recovery: Unknown/Not applicable
Shoreline Cleanup: Unknown/Not applicable
Dispersants: Unknown/Not applicable
In-Situ Burn: Unknown/Not applicable
Bioremediation: Applied


my google dig shows Ken's name but the linked report does not but that must be the the Philadelphia site he worked, and was jailed a year for this incident.

You would think you would learn something from all this...ermm, nope, off and running on the usual theft campaign.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:57 am 

Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm
Posts: 2226
If you have a paid subscription you could read this link.

https://indianagazette.newspaperarchive.com/indiana-gazette/1994-08-03/page-20/

choppy but info is readable interpreted below.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/59785497/





Quote:
Man charged with polluting river, asbestos violations Coast Guard said it cost more than $1 million to clean the oil. Environmental officials also found that from late 1992 to June 1993, the period in which Morrison ran the Philadelphia salvaging operation, Morrison improperly removed and disposed of asbestos from two buildings on the property, the indictment said. He allegedly failed to wet the asbestos stripped from pipes and equipment, to properly place it in leak-proof containers and to deposit it at a waste disposal site, the grand jury alleged. Morrison was charged with three violations of the federal Clean Water Act and sue violations of the Clean Air Act. The alleged violations occurred at the site of the former Celotex Industrial Plant. Schuylkill River in southwest Philadelphia last year. The oil caused a sheen on the water. The indictment said that Morrison, the owner and president of Streator-based La Salle Central Contracting, ran a scrap metal salvaging business in Philadelphia which dismantled large industrial tanks containing oil and tar. Morrison knowingly discharged fuel oil from one of the tanks between June 21 and 22 last year, according to the indictment, which said the substance flowed through drain sumps on the industrial site and into the river. Morrison did not have a permit to discharge any oil into the Schuylkill and failed to notify federal environmental authorities of the discharge, the U.S. Attorney's office said. The U.S. PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal grand jury charged an Illinois man Tuesday with dumping harmful amounts of oil in the Schuylkill River and improperly dismantling and disposing of asbestos at a riverside property. Kenneth Morrison, 44, of Streator, 111., faces a maximum 41 years in prison and $2.25 million fine if convicted of all nine counts of federal environmental crimes. Peter H. Kostmayer, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Region III, said Morrison's behavior was incorrigible. "This kind of irresponsible conduct will not be tolerated," Kostmayer said Tuesday. The EPA said Morrison, who owned a scrap metal salvaging business, pumped as much as 3,000 gallons of oil into
(Schuylkill river)

I wish we had better advance warning about this guy,


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 12:05 pm 

Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:22 pm
Posts: 275
How is this guy not facing life in prison for unlawfully destroying a multi-million dollar structure?

CD


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 12:42 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
CREEPING DEATH wrote:
How is this guy not facing life in prison for unlawfully destroying a multi-million dollar structure?

Because someone has to CARE first.

If I burn down a long-abandoned factory or warehouse in a city that would cost millions to replace, at least some wiseacres would say I did the city a service, risk to firefighters and bystanding people/structures aside. This is why arson of this nature is sometimes sarcastically referred to as "community improvement" in some cynical quarters, and why even railroads have been accused of torching their own vacant structures in order to sell a property. (I heard such accusations when a former B&O warehouse succumbed to flames in the Locust Point area of Baltimore; high-priced residences now occupy the site.)

It's bizarre that the public reacts more viscerally to supposed pollution than property theft and infrastructure damage. But that's the nature of things these days--emotion trumps logic and reason.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 5:00 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
November 2017 update:

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crim ... 04988.html

Quote:
HAMMOND — A Whiting man faces federal charges for allegedly stealing scrap from the Monon Bridge over the Grand Calumet River and selling the material illegally for $18,000.

Kenneth R. Morrison, operating as T&K Metals, was indicted last month on one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, federal court records show.

Morrison's ties to the Monon Bridge date back to 1991, when he first approached the city of Hammond to purchase the bridge for $500 so he could "dismantle and sell the metal for scrap."

A month later, the city's Board of Public Works and Safety denied his request.

Fast forward 22 years later in September 2014, and Morrison "appeared before the (Board of Public Works and Safety) seeking permission to purchase the bridge," records show.

On Oct. 16, 2014, before receiving a response from city officials, Morrison met with the board again and claimed that the property on which the bridge was located was owned by the railroad and that he was negotiating with Norfolk Southern, court records state.

A week later, Morrison allegedly contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claiming the city of Hammond instructed him to consult the agency before removing the bridge.

He was then advised he must obtain proper permits and that EPA did not have authority to grant such.

"Between in or about December 2014 and continuing through in or about January 2015, without authority from the city of Hammond, and without any permit, the defendant dismantled a portion of the bridge and transported and sold the metal to scrap dealers ... in Burnham, Illinois, and East Chicago, Indiana," the indictment alleges.

A Hammond code inspector arrived at the scene of the bridge on Jan. 29, 2015, and put a work stop order on Morrison's dump truck that was parked nearby.

A day later, an Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officer was at the bridge and saw Morrison, who claimed he had a permit to demolish and salvage the bridge, court records show.

After confirming with the city of Hammond he did not have permission to salvage the bridge, the officer ordered him to stop work. A day later, the IDNR officer saw Morrison at the site and ordered him again to stop all work on the bridge.

The Monon Bridge, which was built in 1910, has been owned by several railroad companies throughout its history, including CSX, court records show.

CSX deeded real property, including the bridge, to the city on March 3, 1987, records show. According to The Times archives, the bridge is an important remnant of the city's history. The bridge was the last remnant of the Hammond Meatpacking Co., one of the city's first industries.

Indiana officials cited Morrison in 2015 for violating state water quality standards when he sent creosote-soaked railroad ties into the waterway as he dismantled the structure.

In 2015, Morrison defended his actions in an interview with The Times, arguing the bridge was "like a shipwreck," and that "if a ship sinks, that's abandoned and it's fair game."

He also insisted that by allowing a private entity to remove the structure, he was doing officials a favor by saving the city some money.

Prison time for Philadelphia oil spill

Morrison did prison time for spilling thousands of gallons of oil and tar into a Philadelphia river in the 1990s, according to The Times archives.

Hammond Historical Society officials revealed recently that back in 1995, Morrison was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $50,000 after he attempted to salvage a metal tank and ended up discharging 2,000 gallons of waste oil into the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania, and another 3,000 into the ground.

The cleanup of the 1993 spill cost an estimated $1.3 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

At the time, Morrison was operating as the owner of LaSalle Central Contracting in Pennsylvania. He had told investigators in Pennsylvania he didn’t report the spill into the Schuylkill because it “wasn’t a big deal,” according to Inquirer archives.

Morrison surrendered to authorities on Friday and was released on a $20,000 bond, court records show.


More at the link.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 5:54 pm 

Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm
Posts: 2226
nobody has taken his business license yet? and he's out on bail on the loose again.

and its not a sunken ship.


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:31 pm 

Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:22 pm
Posts: 275
dinwitty wrote:
nobody has taken his business license yet? and he's out on bail on the loose again.

and its not a sunken ship.


Sounds like the guy is nothing more than a thief, a characteristic all too common with 'scrappers' I've encountered.

Eli


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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 5:08 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
dinwitty wrote:
nobody has taken his business license yet? and he's out on bail on the loose again.

and its not a sunken ship.


I gotta torch... donna need no stinkin' business license.

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 Post subject: Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:24 pm 

Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:22 pm
Posts: 65
Location: Northwest Indiana
Here's an update
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/one-piece ... the-latest



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