State lawsuit: Owner of Greece WWII shipyard property near Lake Ontario sued over contamination, cleanup put at more than $31 million

State lawsuit: Owner of Greece WWII shipyard property near Lake Ontario sued over contamination, cleanup put at more than $31 million Berkeley Brean News10NBC State lawsuit: Owner of Greece WWII shipyard property near Lake Ontario sued over contamination, cleanup put at more than $31 million GREECE, N.Y. — Eighty years after the site near Lake Ontario helped build war ships for the American war effort, the state is suing the current owner for contamination. Hazard goes back to WWII The property, once home to the Odenbach Shipping Company, saw landing barges, floating cranes and tugs built before the Department of Defense took over, followed by the General Service Administration, the Monroe County Water Authority and finally Genesee Scrap and Tin Bailing Company. Genesee Scrap, officially 4800 Dewey Avenue, Inc., is now being sued for what the state calls “heavily contaminated” land dating back to the 1940s. Arthur Bell, who lives in the apartment complex across the street, said, “They take their tractors and trucks.” Bell said he mostly sees what he thinks are landscaping crews coming and going. “If the ground is contaminated is it coming this far?” Bell said. Widespread but on-site The Department of Environmental Conservation said the contamination is widespread but “on-site.” The Monroe County Water Authority sits next door and is going through the lawsuit this weekend. Using the same federal environmental law, the state DEC sued a different company, A.O. Smith Corporation, over the same site two years ago and settled for $2 million. It sued the owner of a property outside Buffalo five years ago and settled for $3.5 million. The state said it spent more than $5 million testing the industrial site on Dewey Avenue and said the cost to clean it will be more than $31 million. The family that owns the property declined to talk on camera, News10NBC learned. This site in Greece has been on the DEC’s radar for 17 years. In the settlements mentioned, the companies are generally protected from new lawsuits over contamination.