EAST BRANCH - A cluster of East Branch homeowners say their drinking water turned cloudy, dirty and metallic this fall after a neighboring property, elevated above their homes, was built up with residents describe as “muck” - the wet stone dust byproduct of a local quarry’s saws - hauled there by the truckload for months.
One homeowner, who requested anonymity to prevent any personal or professional friction, said the material came from Johnston & Rhodes, a major area employer, and was deposited on a hillside “up above us, over a cliff.”
Johnston & Rhodes is a bluestone company with an address of Bridge Street in East Branch - and a footprint that extends along O & W Road - that quarries, fabricates, and distributes bluestone. The company, which has been in operation since 1900, is known for its exclusive Elk Brook Bluestone and supplies architectural stone, fieldstone, and landscaping stone to architects and contractors.
In March 2025, Johnston & Rhodes was acquired by Aden Mining & Materials Inc.
“They were running 20 loads a day, five days a week for almost three months,” the resident said, describing the byproduct as “the same as sawdust” you get when wood is milled, except the byproduct in this case is “just stone.”
The families said the first heavy rain sent the slurry downslope, overwhelming their spring house and plumbing.
“It ruined my UV system and the washer,” one resident said. “It was literally like mud … coming from our faucet.”
The homeowners say they raised concerns “multiple times” with a Johnston & Rhodes representative, a manager, and the landowner receiving the fill.
“We were worried about [it] getting in our water system,” another resident said. “They continued weeks after to bring loads of saw muck up there.”
The family also reported the material being placed at East Branch Firemen’s Field - “on top of the town well,” a resident said - raising concerns beyond a single household.
“We’re concerned about the entire neighborhood and all water district users,” a resident said, adding that their calls for help to the town, the state Department of Health, the town’s supervisor and code enforcement officer, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation yielded “no direction or help.”
Hancock Supervisor Jerry Vernold and the Code Enforcement Officer Josh Morgan visited the properties on Sept. 29 and “looked at everything,” the homeowner said, including a pond that now collects runoff before it enters a storm drain to the river [East Branch of the Delaware River].
“They’re like, ‘There’s nothing we can do here,’” the resident recounted.
One family provided test results with sharply elevated metals after the hauling began. According to the family, a home water sample taken in September measured iron at “90,300 micrograms per liter” (the limit is 300), and lead at “62.7 micrograms per liter,” compared with a health-based limit of 10 micrograms per liter. “My daughter just had her lead tested. Thank God, she was negative,” a family member said. They also said soil tests taken at firemen’s field showed elevated lead and iron, though “not as much” as at the home.
A 2021 water sample, taken before the stone debris was piled upslope of the homes, reveals no excessive iron detected and 15 micrograms of lead per liter, a slightly elevated level.
One family said they paid to trench roughly 700 feet to connect to the municipal water system - through a neighbor’s yard, with an easement - after their water became unusable. “We’d be homeless right now” without that backup, [and water] that resident said.
The same resident said Johnston & Rhodes offered a modest amount of materials as compensation, which the family declined, saying it did not come close to covering the damage and costs they faced.
The homeowner said a company representative told them, “If I was you, I’d move.” (The family says the conversation was not in writing.)
Johnston & Rhodes Perspective
In a written response to questions about dumping or relocating byproducts or waste materials, Nick Fitzgerald, president and CEO of Johnston & Rhodes, said the company was asked to deliver the materials to two locations in East Branch and that landowners - not the bluestone business - are responsible for any required approvals.
“The customers/landowners who ordered the material from us to be delivered would have to have their own site plans or building plans,” Fitzgerald said. He noted that one recipient, Steve Fenessee, “ordered material from us to expand his yard/lawn area and to later build a garage in that area,” while at firemen’s field, “Rod Kessler [representing the East Branch Fire Department] ordered the material to build up the low-lying area that was muddy and to build a parking lot for events held at the firemen’s field. We delivered material as requested.”
Fitzgerald described the byproduct/waste material as marketable stone product.
“The material is stone dust blended with crushed rock. It’s a low-cost material that we sell for structural base to build roads, parking lots or buildings on,” he wrote. “All stone products we sell are part of the mining and sustainable use of the rock that we extract from the quarries and process at the mill. All materials are sold as a stone or rock product and there is no waste in the end.”
He said Johnston & Rhodes has not identified any safety concerns related to the material’s impact on water.
“All aggregate materials are locally extracted rock from the earth and part of the local geology. There is no part of the material that would be considered unsafe,” Fitzgerald said. “Runoff or cloudiness from stone dust, clay, mud or other natural material is part of natural erosion. It’s up to the construction site to keep their site stabilized and comply with stormwater runoff standards.”
Fitzgerald stated that Johnston & Rhodes does not believe the stone material caused the well contamination reported by homeowners.
“A hydrology study tracking runoff and waterflows would need to determine if runoff from Steve’s [Fenesee, the upslope property owner of complaining neighboring property owners] construction site or the fireman’s field parking lot project did enter a fact water source,” he said. “In the case of the above-ground open spring water source I believe any rainstorm could cause turbidity in that water hole regardless of construction at a neighboring site.”
Asked whether the company planned to take action in response to residents’ concerns, Fitzgerald replied: “I do not believe we did anything wrong here to fix or communicate about. I did reach out to Rod Keesler and Steve Fennessee to see if they needed any help to stabilize material or make sure runoff from the sites was not an issue.”
Fitzgerald also provided results from a soil sample test the company commissioned on Oct. 15. The results indicate “lead levels in the samples collected were 2.4 parts per million (ppm), and 12.5 ppm respectively. The NYS standard for unrestricted use of soil materials and the Protection of Ecological Resources is 63 ppm. The NYS standard for the Protection of Groundwater is 450 ppm. The stockpile test results are, therefore, below established action thresholds, and use of these materials as fill or construction aggregate is not a cause for concern.” The test was conducted by Alpine Environmental Consultants in Montgomery.
Fitzgerald also said Johnston & Rhodes has committed to repair pavement damaged by hauling. “We did send an email to the supervisor and committed to fixing any cracks our trucks may have caused in the blacktop on the roads around the East Branch mill,” he wrote. “We are planning to have a paving company fix the issues at hand before end of season.”
What’s Next?
The residents say they are seeking removal of the stone residue and remediation of affected areas more than compensation.
“I’d rather just get the [material] away from my house,” one homeowner said. “It has a lot of health implications.”
The homeowners also fault what they describe as a lack of official action. The anonymous resident said they contacted DEC and were told the situation did not meet a threshold for state waste oversight; the town, they said, pointed back to the state.
“We finally screamed enough where they got [a] soil sample,” at the field, the resident said, but “we still don’t have a plan.”
Residents say town officials told them there was nothing the town could do; however, the town adopted a law in February 1991 which prohibits... “the dumping of paper, garbage, rubbish, trash, toxic chemicals and substances and other waste materials of any nature in the Town of Hancock except at a municipally operated transfer station or landfill.”
Town of Hancock officials did not respond to followup requests for information about relocating or dumping waste material in violation of its law.
The residents have testing records and email correspondence with officials and are considering what to do next.
Hancock Supervisor and Code Officer Respond
Town of Hancock Attorney Leonard E. Sienko Jr. responded to inquiries directed to Vernold and Morgan. First, regarding the municipal well at Firemen’s Field, Sienko said the town engaged Delaware Engineering to test soils after stone-cutting material was discovered nearby. A review of soil tests reveal that the soil surrounding the municipal well and pump house is contaminated with elevated metal levels.
According to Sienko, the public water supply is not contaminated; the town has increased monitoring and is coordinating with the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of Health (DOH). Because regulatory review and potential enforcement or litigation may follow, the town is not commenting on fault or liability, Sienko said.
The second matter, Sienko said, involves private wells and material placed on private property along Ryder Road. Sienko characterized that issue as a civil dispute between neighbors and outside the town’s authority. He added that DEC had reviewed aspects of the situation and treated them as private matters, and that the town has no jurisdiction over private wells or private-property conflicts. Questions about whether stone-cutting byproduct is classified as waste or fill were directed to DEC (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation).
Questions about transporting and/or relocating waste were not responded to.
For now, neighbors say they remain worried about what happens when it rains.
“All of the water runoff comes down off that hill through our property,” the anonymous resident said. “We’re just asking for the risk to stop for our kids, our soil, and everyone on the district well.”
Fresh Blacktop, Clear Expectations
Hancock Highway Superintendent Neil Emerich said the town has recently resurfaced key stretches of road in East Branch and is closely tracking heavy truck traffic tied to local industry.
“We’ve paved O&W [Road] from Fishs Eddy to East Branch this past summer; and the summer before I paved from Johnston & Rhodes to Peakville,” Emerich said, noting the upper ends have received “two coats” of oil and stone, with the lower end slated for oil and stone during the summer of 2026. The approach, he said, is cyclical and driven by need: “As I get the money [from the state and the town budget] whatever I can do - the worst, I do those first.”
After reports that off-site hauling by Johnston & Rhodes damaged newly-laid pavement, Emerich said he contacted the company.
“They had five sections that they broke up on our newly paved roads. I told them, you’re going to fix them or we’re going to fix it and bill you,” Emerich said. He added that the commitment to repair was conveyed “in writing” to the town supervisor, Jerry Vernold, and that a company representative told him on Nov. 3 that the work would be done “as soon as they start blacktopping…here in the next week.” If not, Emerich said, “we’re going to fix it and they’re going to be billed. I can’t let it go into the snow.”
Emerich stated that though Vernold reported to him that the town obtained a written commitment from Johnston & Rhodes to repair the damage they caused to town roads, he has not yet seen any documents reflecting that.
The town has not posted special weight limits on any of its roads.
“I have no weight restrictions on our roads up there,” Emerich said, in deference to heavy equipment associated with industry such as logging and bluestone quarrying which supports Hancock’s economy - so oversight centers on maintenance and accountability for damage. He said his office responded to a resident complaint about “dust and…stone in the road” near Johnston & Rhodes. “I went up there and addressed it, and they’re brooming it every night, there’s no problem now.”
Emerich emphasized that his department is monitoring conditions and expects repairs to proceed promptly.
“In my mind this is being addressed,” he said. “I do feel that they’ll take care of it.”
