In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many a roadway was blocked by a tangle of tree limbs, power lines and other random debris. For local officials hoping to qualify for federal cleanup reimbursement, the debris might as well have been tangled in red tape.
“Once we actually started reading the FEMA regulations as to what they do allow and do not allow, the township clearly realized we were going to be in over our head,” said Scott Pezarras, business administrator for Brick. “They have a section of regulation — an entire section — on stumps. Not the tree, but the stumps.”
Waste haulers can only remove a stump if its root ball — the tangled mass of roots below the ground — is more than 50 percent exposed, Pezarras said. If it’s only 40 percent exposed, the work might not be reimbursable.
The web of regulations, and opportunity for fraud, are two reasons the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires local governments to implement a monitoring program to oversee debris removal. Local officials can do the monitoring in-house, but often hire a monitoring contractor specializing in disaster recovery.
Sam Rosania, vice president at Arcadis U.S. Inc., said his monitors track every phase of debris removal, from determining what can and cannot be picked up to verifying the size of the loads dropped off at landfills or other debris sites.
For instance, he said, a hauler might be tempted to pick up a tree in the roadway of a debris area, but if the storm happened weeks ago and a tree branch has green leaves on it, it probably wasn’t knocked down by the storm, and thus wouldn’t qualify for reimbursement.
“For FEMA to reimburse the area, the debris has to be eligible, it has to be in the right of way, has to be generated from the storm and so forth,” Rosania said, which creates opportunities for firms like Arcadis. And there’s plenty at stake for local governments, as FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of eligible cleanup costs.
Arcadis was one of two contractors, along with SAIC, initially awarded state contracts to monitor debris removal through a competitive bidding process. The state subsequently awarded monitoring contracts to Witt O’Brien’s and the Louis Berger Group.
Regine de la Cruz, a Louis Berger representative, said the company has a shared services agreement with Ocean County, under which they provide monitoring to some 14 municipalities and the county itself.
Arcadis has contracted with 17 municipalities, and has already overseen the removal of some 1.4 million cubic yards of debris.
While some of the regulations governing debris clearing can be a source of frustration for municipal officials, Ernest Abbott, an attorney at the Washington, D.C., firm FEMA Law Associates, said removal projects can be fertile ground for fraud.
