Let's Talk About Monroe's Hydrogen Sulfide Problem
Village of Monroe residents have long known about a "rotten egg smell." What they don't know is that the smell is caused by hydrogen sulfide, which is dangerous to their health and safety.
Above: Although the hydrogen sulfide (“rotten egg smell”) is now prevalent across most of the Village of Monroe, the two primary sources of the odor are Orange County’s MH-M7 (Manhole 7), near the Millpond Shortline bus stop pictured above, and MH-M8 (Manhole 8), which is located inside of Airplane Park where children routinely play.
Today, I’d like to explain the hydrogen sulfide situation in the Village of Monroe as briefly as I can. There are many moving parts, and many FOIL requests await a response from Orange County Environmental Facilities and Services and the Village of South Blooming Grove. You can see the list of my FOILs with Orange County here. That’s a long way of saying there’s more information coming than what I will share with you here.
Today, I just want to hit the highlights.
Before you say, “Yeah, BJ, but South Blooming Grove never replies to FOILs,” yes. I’m aware. But what’s different this time is that there’s an attorney involved, and we will be taking them to court over South Blooming Grove’s anticipated non-compliance.
(South Blooming Grove has already refused to respond to, or even acknowledge, a FOIL request concerning the “generous” donation of $250,000 worth of vehicles to Mr. Stern’s playtime police unit, which I want to stress, does not exist. So, legal action against them is already underway. The days of South Blooming Grove’s de facto mayor, Joel Stern, and friends trying to hide information from the public concerning the numerous public safety issues he is specifically and directly responsible for creating are coming to an end.
Whether or not he’s held responsible by the federal Environmental Protection Agency — already aware of the situation in South Blooming Grove and Monroe and investigating him — the State Department of Environmental Conservation — currently looking to let South Blooming Grove off the hook for the situation I’m about to explain — or the New York State Department of Health — already blaming the DEC for not notifying them of this situation — remains to be seen. Take note here that the federal agency is actively investigating Mr. Stern and South Blooming Grove while the two state agencies, the DEC and Department of Health, are both looking to pass the buck.
Can’t imagine why that would be, can you?
More importantly, and before we go any further, I want to provide you with a statement from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as directions on how to file a complaint with them concerning the hydrogen sulfide situation in the Village of Monroe:
“DEC encourages New Yorkers to report unfamiliar or unpleasant odors to 1-800-457-7362, a toll-free 24-hour hotline. Callers are asked to provide as many details as possible including the location, time of day, duration, frequency of the odor, description of the odor, and wind direction at the time of smelling the odor. If anyone has a condition that is influenced by exposure to unpleasant odors and has any health issues, they should consult their medical provider.”
You might be wondering, ok, but what should I say when I call the DEC? How do I make sure they do not let South Blooming Grove and Mr. Stern off the hook for what’s going on?
Well, we’re going to get to that in today’s post after I explain the situation, how we got here, and what you can do about it.
Oh, and, remember, I’m not really posting much in Facebook Groups anymore. So, it’s up to you to read this and share this post if you think it’s worth doing so. I’m done dealing with weird ass people.
The Situation: What Is Hydrogen Sulfide & Is It Dangerous?
Hydrogen Sulfide is better known as “sewer gas,” and according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), it’s one of the leading causes of death in the workplace. The New York State Department of Health refers to it as a colorless gas with a “rotten egg smell.” If there’s no ongoing source, the gas tends to go away on its own. Unfortunately, the Village of Monroe has an ongoing source, which we will touch in the next section.
The Department of Health goes on to explain the health problems caused by exposure to hydrogen sulfide:
Exposure to high levels of hydrogen sulfide can result in health effects ranging from mild discomfort to more serious symptoms. Because the odor is so strong and offensive, hydrogen sulfide can be a nuisance at low levels and can cause symptoms that might be expected from a foul odor, such as nausea or headaches.
People can have different sensitivities to hydrogen sulfide odors; some might experience symptoms while others are unaffected. People who have been exposed to hydrogen sulfide also report symptoms such as burning and tearing of eyes, coughing, and shortness of breath.
If hydrogen sulfide levels increase or exposure occurs for many days or weeks, people can have more severe eye and respiratory irritation, as well as headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide may also worsen asthma symptoms. Most of the health effects caused by hydrogen sulfide typically diminish once people get to fresh air, or the source of the hydrogen sulfide is removed.
And for those of you who routinely walk your dogs around the Millpond, hydrogen sulfide can also be dangerous to your dog. In a letter to her fellow veterinarians written in 2021, Karen Ehnert, DVM, MPVM, DACVPM Director, Veterinary Public Health Los Angeles County Department of Public Health explained:
Pets exposed to it may have lethargy, loss of appetite, discharge from the eyes or nose, and potentially difficulty breathing. Pets with underlying conditions like asthma may be more affected. Birds may be more affected than dogs and cats. Treatment consists of reducing or eliminating exposure, and potentially supportive care to address symptoms. It is recommended that people and pets in the affected areas stay indoors to reduce exposure when a strong odor is detectable in the area. (Emphasis Added.)
The danger of hydrogen sulfide comes from the higher levels of it. Orange County did not provide any of the reports or studies in the one FOIL request they complied with; however, what we do know is that in an email sent on September 23rd, 2021 by Anthony R. Griffin, Orange County’s Principal Sanitatiary Engineer (which South Blooming Grove’s fake mayor, George Kalaj, and Village Engineer Al Fusco Jr. was copied on) stated the following:
Please see attached hydrogen sulfide data taken at the Chester/Blooming Grove combined force main discharge MH M8 located in Airplane Park. As shown, the gas levels remain very high. (Emphasis added.)
In a follow-up email responding to Orange County’s report, Village of Monroe Trustee John Karl said, “Thank you. This needs to move quickly as odors are horrendous.”
The following chart is taken from OSHA that shows, on the left, the parts per million of hydrogen sulfide, and to the right, the health impacts of what exposure to that level of hydrogen sulfide can do to you:
How We Got Here:
An ongoing source of hydrogen sulfide in the Village of Monroe comes from raw, untreated sewage released by the Village of South Blooming Grove into Orange County Sewer District 1’s infrastructure. That infrastructure runs through the Village of Monroe on its way to the sewage treatment plant in Harriman, which you should know, is well over capacity in certain instances despite Orange County, South Blooming Grove, and the Town of Monroe, and other municipalities not issuing any kind of global stop work order within the sewage district. Only the Village of Woodbury has suggested creating a sewer moratorium.
Something to keep in mind this Fall when Trustees Fries-Cirello and Ferrelli, who are advocating for the sewer moratorium, are competing with Tyler Etzel Jr. and John U. Keleman, who want to allow developer Wayne Corts to build condos on the Falkirk Golf Course and annex Ace Farms in the City of Kiryas Joel.
Previously, the “rotten egg smell” in Monroe was created through contributions of untreated sewage by Chester and South Blooming Grove, but Chester’s half of the problem — some equipment issues aside — has since been resolved.
South Blooming Grove's behavior under de facto mayor Joel Stern has transformed an occasional nuisance odor into a situation threatening the health and safety of all Monroe residents, and dogs, who utilize the Millpond and its associated parks.
We know this thanks to FOIL’ed documents provided by Orange County, which show that Mr. Stern met with Orange County Legislators Peter Tuohy (Orange County District 7-Monroe) and Kathrenie Bonelli (Orange County District 5-South Blooming Grove, among others) in August of 2021 specifically about South Blooming Grove’s growing contribution to the hydrogen sulfide situation.
Remember this point: Mr. Stern was made aware of the hydrogen sulfide situation in late 2021, presented with a solution to the problem in 2022, and that solution was tested and implemented successfully in Chester. Today, in 2024, Mr. Stern has not bothered to remedy the issue.
He’s actually using it as a negotiation tactic.
How? In short, Mr. Stern wants to build a road through Orange County’s Gonzaga Park. His illegal construction in that park resulted in a lawsuit between South Blooming Grove and the County. Stern wants the County to drop the lawsuit and let him rip up Gonzaga Park so he can build his road in exchange for remedying the hydrogen suldife issue in Monroe. (You may remember that Mr. Stern created an illegal left turning lane off Route 208, which the New York State Department of Transportation had to remove at the expense of South Blooming Grove residents. The left turning lane was part of this larger “Mangin Bypass” project.)
Much like everything else involving Mr. Stern, the desire to build this “Mangin Bypass” road is driven by how it would directly raise the property value of the land surrounding “The Mangin Bypass”, which is owned through an LLC by the Jacobowitz family and others.
Mr. Bernard Jacobowitz was one of the original plaintiffs in a lawsuit against South Blooming Grove to have the Village dissolved. When that lawsuit failed, Mr. Jacobowitz and the other plaintiffs formed the company known as Keen Equities.
Yes. The same company behind the Clovewood project. You know, the one the DEC has fined but hasn’t acted to revoke their permits despite having very good reason (and the authority) to do so? Yup. That Keen Equities.
Mr. Avaraham Bur Jacobowitz, note the last name, is often said to be the primary source of funding for much of Mr. Stern’s operations in South Blooming Grove. Mr. Avaraham Bur Jacobowitz is also frequently alleged to be the man who purchased South Blooming Grove’s fake mayor George Kalaj’s home for 890% its market value through a series of shell companies set up by Martin Werzberger.
So, in short, Mr. Stern is holding the health and safety of Monroe Village residents hostage to benefit the real estate interests of the Jacobowitz family who are directly compensating Stern for doing so.
In addition, despite full knowledge of South Blooming Grove’s contribution to the hydrogen sulfide situation, he has allowed rampant and often unpermitted construction to occur day and night in the Village of South Blooming Grove. Despite their best efforts, and FOIL requests, Mr. Stern refuses to provide the Town of Blooming Grove with any building permits concerning all of the construction going on within the Village. Stern has alleged and accused Town of Blooming Grove Supervisor, Robert Jeroloman, of committing a felony as the reason for Stern not providing the Town with any sort of information.
(Supervisor Jeroloman did not reply to multiple requests to comment concerning Mr. Stern’s accusation. Mr. Stern did not reply to multiple requests for comment concerning the substance of everything discussed in today’s story, as well as his allegation about the Supervisor.)
Stern routinely blames, in authorized statements from his local hate group, the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove and South Blooming Grove’s official Yiddish language publication, The Blooming Grove Report, the “shortcomings of previous administrations,” but when it comes to the hydrogen sulfide situation in the Village of Monroe, the responsibility rests squarely on him.
So, What Can We Do?
For starters, you can call the DEC and provide them with the following information:
When calling 1-800-457-7362, press option 3, tell them you are calling to report the smell of hydrogen sulfide in the VILLAGE of Monroe in Orange County. (This is important because New York has a Monroe County where there are more cows than people over in Western New York.)
They will then route you to someone in their Region 3 Office, and that person will then ask you to provide the following information:
-The source of the "rotten egg smell" is hydrogen sulfide and the smell is ongoing, not intermittent.
-The potentially dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide are a direct result of Joel Stern, South Blooming Grove's de facto Mayor, and the Village of South Blooming Grove refusing to treat their raw sewage.
While the untreated sewage is indeed traveling through Orange County infrastructure, you want to make clear that South Blooming Grove and Joel Stern are responsible for this and that the DEC MUST hold them accountable. (When contacted for this story, the Chief of Staff for the DEC Commissioner, Erica Ringwald referred The Monroe Gazette to the press office. The DEC press office stated that the DEC is investigating Orange County, not South Blooming Grove. When asked why this was, given that South Blooming Grove is the “violator” to use the same term the EPA did, no reply was provided by the DEC.)
-Mr. Stern was directly informed about the problem by two Orange County legislators, Peter Tuohy and Kathereine Bonelli, at an August 2021 meeting. Mr. Stern then proceeded to have hardware piloted by ANUE Water Technologies in 2022 which has proven capable of solving this issue. We know this because the same hardware was used to solve Chester's contribution to this hydrogen sulfide problem in the Village of Monroe. Mr. Stern refuses to utilize the ANUE technology.
-Instead, Mr. Stern is holding the health and safety of Monroe residents hostage in order to negotiate the end of a lawsuit filed against South Blooming Grove by Orange County that would allow him to build an unnecessary road through a county park.
-The hydrogen sulfide can be smelled throughout the Village of Monroe, but the primary source that you're reporting is Orange County Manhole 7 (where the Millpond Shortline Stop is) and Orange County Manhole 8 (inside of Airplane Park, where children play.)
What Else Can You Do?
Well, to start, you can thank Monroe Village Mayor Neil Dwyer and Trustee Jon Karl because, in the hundreds of pages of emails I’ve reviewed for this story, they are the only two people consistently advocating for action to resolve the hydrogen sulfide issue. Orange County Legislator Peter Tuohy as well.
As you might have guessed, Monroe Town Board member — and Village of Monroe Liaison — Dorey Houle, was absolutely nowhere to be found over the three years of emails reviewed by The Monroe Gazette. Supervisor Tony Cardone routinely passed the buck and did not participate in any substantive way shape or form, including at one point asking if he needed to be at a meeting about this issue on August 17th, 2022. To which Orange County Legislator Peter Tuohy responded to Cardone, “Sure if you're available. The outcome of this project directly effects Monroe.... You are more than welcome. Thanks.”
It’s not clear from the emails received from Orange County if Supervisor Cardone attended this meeting.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds to me like grounds to remove Cardone from office.
Or at the very least, have people attend the next Town of Monroe Board meeting and ask the Supervisor and Mrs. Houle to explain why Cardone was so swift to threaten action against Kiryas Joel while both of them did nothing about the hydrogen sulfide situation for three years.
I’ll have more on this story as soon as I get those FOILs responded to. Orange County tends to drag out its response time — much like they did with the OC Department of Health’s violations against Joel Stern’s failure to maintain adequate drinking water for current South Blooming Grove residents.
So, it could be a bit before we speak about this again.
Just know I’m on the case.