A Democrat running for Congress in upstate New York is accused of having his farm workers dump garbage in a creek, and he says the state already cleared him.
Story Snapshot
- A sworn statement filed October 1 with New York State Police accuses Gendebien of directing workers to dump farm garbage in a creek.
- A former farm worker also says 20 to 30 dead cattle were pushed into the creek.
- Gendebien denies it and says the state environmental agency already cleared him.
- State Police confirmed they received the complaint and said it is under investigation.
Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer and the Democrat running for Congress in upstate New York’s 21st District, is accused in a sworn statement filed with State Police of having his workers haul farm garbage into a creek that feeds the St. Lawrence River so he would not have to pay dump fees, according to reports published Wednesday, October 7. A sworn statement is a written account signed under penalty of law for lying. It is an accusation, and Gendebien has not been charged with anything.
Gendebien rejects the claim and says the state has already looked at his farm. “I’ve already been cleared here,” he told reporters. New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, the state agency that enforces pollution laws, said it looked into a complaint about the farm in early September, found no violations and closed it.
What the Sworn Statement Says
The statement was filed by Nathan Couture, a private investigator with Brooks Investigations. The firm was hired by the campaign of Anthony Constantino, the Republican running against Gendebien. It passes along the account of a person who worked on Gendebien’s farm and is not named. That witness says Gendebien “directed his own workers to haul garbage into a wooded creek area” behind the property. The reason given was to avoid paying waste disposal fees.
A former worker’s signed complaint goes further, according to reports. It says about 20 to 30 dead cattle were pushed into the creek during that worker’s time on the farm. Constantino laid out the accusations at a press conference on Monday, October 5. “Mr. Gendebien is regularly dumping garbage into a local waterway,” he said.
What the Drone Pictures Show
Constantino’s investigators flew a drone over the farm in St. Lawrence County in late July. The pictures and video show old tires, concrete slabs and other debris near a stream or marshy area. The investigators say the dump site is about the size of two basketball courts, with debris in the water. A waste removal company they consulted put the cleanup cost at $200,000 and said the site may hold hazardous waste.
The pictures do not show dead cattle, according to local television reports. That part of the accusation rests on the former worker’s word.
Gendebien’s Answer
Gendebien has waved off the accusations and said his rival does not understand farming. “Six-dollar diesel is making farming hard enough without this weirdo drone stalking my home and business,” he said. His defense leans on the state agency’s finding of no violations.
Critics note that the environmental agency answers to Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who backs Gendebien, and that it closed the complaint without ordering a cleanup. The agency’s finding and the State Police review are separate. State Police said the complaint they received “remains under investigation.”
Why It Matters in This Race
The 21st District covers New York’s North Country, the rural top of the state along the Canadian border. It is the seat long held by Republican Elise Stefanik, who carried it with 62 percent of the vote in 2024. National Democrats have put it on their list of seats they hope to flip. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
Gendebien has run as a working farmer who knows the land. An accusation that he used a creek as a dump, in a district where people fish and farm along the St. Lawrence, goes straight at that image. Voters now have two things to weigh: a sworn statement and drone pictures gathered by his opponent’s team, and a state agency that looked and found nothing wrong. The State Police review is the piece still to come.
Sources:
thegatewaypundit.com, nypost.com, us.headtopics.com, wwnytv.com