A worker suffered severe chemical burns, including serious eye injuries, after sodium persulfate and sodium hydroxide were introduced into a groundwater monitoring well at the Garden Street redevelopment site in New Rochelle last November. Now, four lawsuits filed in Bronx and Westchester counties are challenging how the state responded, not just at that site but at three other Brownfield projects tied to developer Mark Stagg.
The incident happened November 4, 2025, at 11 Garden Street / 1 Cottage Place, the former Cottage-Garden auto repair site, according to Talk of the Sound. Worker José Candelario was injured after the chemicals were poured into what the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation identified as monitoring well MW-4, one of six groundwater wells at the site. The agency said the applicant failed to submit a required Corrective Measures Work Plan before introducing the chemicals, and it has since revoked the property's Brownfield Cleanup Program Certificate of Completion over the episode.
The site owner's counsel has disputed DEC's version of events. Developers have said workers mistook the well for a drain, as reported by Talk of the Sound. The dispute remains unresolved in the administrative proceeding concerning the property, and the four new lawsuits do not resolve the underlying factual disagreement about what actually happened that day.
What DEC Says It Heard From the Hospital Bed
DEC reviewed New Rochelle police body-worn camera footage of a November 5 hospital interview with Candelario, according to the agency's account relayed by the outlet. In that account, Candelario described cleaning groundwater monitoring wells ahead of an anticipated inspection, and said he had done similar work before. The agency also identified Mark Fonte in connection with instructions given to workers, though the developers have disputed DEC's characterization of the hospital interview. The body-camera footage itself has not been released, and the publication has sought the underlying police records under New York's Freedom of Information Law.
Fuad Dahan, a principal at SESI Consulting Engineers, served as the project's remediation engineer.
A Cleanup That Was Supposed to Be Finished
The Garden Street site entered New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program in 2019 and received a conditional Certificate of Completion in December 2020, after contractors excavated more than 22,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and injected nearly six tons of sodium persulfate into groundwater in June 2020. That conditional certificate required groundwater standards to be met within five years, a deadline that fell at the end of December 2025.
Contamination had not gone away quietly. As of the last publicly available test in March 2022, trichloroethene levels in monitoring well MW-3 had rebounded to roughly 17 times the state's groundwater standard, the earlier Talk of the Sound reporting noted.
Three More Stagg Projects Caught in the Fallout
The lawsuits extend well beyond Garden Street, challenging DEC actions affecting three other Brownfield projects associated with developer Mark Stagg.
Three of the four lawsuits were filed September 14 and the fourth on October 22. South Bronx Development I and II LLC challenged DEC's ineligibility determination for the Webster Avenue Railroad Harlem Division property. A third suit, 418 North Division Street LLC v. NYSDEC, concerns the Highland Light Steam Laundry property in Peekskill, where developers had proposed roughly 160 affordable apartments with retail and community facility space before DEC rejected the application. The fourth, Yonkers Kimball Development LLC v. NYSDEC, challenges the agency's refusal to approve an amendment to an existing Brownfield cleanup agreement. The lawsuits were handled by Pirro along with Abrams Fensterman attorneys including Amy Marion.
The Stakes for New Rochelle's Skyline
Garden Street itself is no small project. Its first phase, a six-story building completed in summer 2021, now houses Westchester Family Court and commercial space, according to Westfair Communications. The site also includes a 186-unit affordable housing tower. Last year the city approved ML Garden LLC's site plan for a third and final phase.
For now, the chemical incident dispute remains unresolved administratively. DEC took adverse action against the other Stagg-associated projects in June and July, actions the four lawsuits now ask the courts to review.
