The Beginning of the End for the Tank Farm

Last November, Gossips recounted the story of the oil tanks that once stood on the Hudson waterfront (and were featured in the final scene of Odds Against Tomorrow): "Not So Long Along in Hudson." 

In 1986, the tanks were being used by Russian mobsters to store bootlegged gasoline. The Gossips post published in November was inspired by two articles from the New York Post that documented the situation in July 1986. Recently, John Cody sent me the following article, which appeared in the New York Post on July 18, 1986, and was the first of the Post articles about the tank farm. It was, in Cody's words, "the beginning of the end for the usage of the tanks." You can click on the image to enlarge it, or read the transcription of the article below.

Leaking gasoline storage tanks linked to the underworld's $1 billion bootleg gas racket are in danger of blowing up and taking part of a town with it, The Post has learned.

The giant tanks in the upstate river town of Hudson sit next to a senior citizen complex and a busy rail corridor where residents fear sparks from trains could ignite a cloud of vapors seeping from the aging tanks. 

The town's code enforcement officer, Jack Revene, calls the fumes "horrendous."

Carl Whitbeck, attorney for Hudson, told The Post that on June 27 he ordered the operators to empty the tank farm within 45 days. Asked if he knew if the emptying was in progress, Whitbeck answered: "I don't know. I assume they are." But residents remain edgy as the fumes still permeate the air.

"I don't think the city would be able to respond quickly enough if there was an explosion," said John Cody, president of Save Hudson's Only Waterfront, a local environmental group. "It's bad enough we've gotten headaches and had to leave the house," he added. "Vapors are the most explosive component of gasoline, so we're worried."

A government task force raided the tank farm offices five months ago as part of a sweeping probe of a mob-linked network that allegedly controls as much as one-third of the gas sold in the metropolitan area.

Shortly after the raid by the Oil and Gas Task Force, the tank farm owners--two Russian immigrants linked to the Luchese crime family as well as to a Brighton Beach crime syndicate--leased the facility to a Wall Street investment banker.

The banker, Mark Stahl, senior vice president of Shearson Lehman Bros., told The Post he was aware of possible criminal activities of the owners, Oleg Yasko and Oleg Shumin, but he himself was not involved in any way with their activities.

Stahl said he had privately put together a group of investors to lease and eventually buy the tank farm to restore it for a new chain of service stations.

The tank farm, owned by the Russian pair's firm, Jolana Enterprises Inc., is the target of the joint investigation by state, local and federal authorities, said New York Asst. Attorney General Ingrid Hansen. She declined to detail the role of the tank farm or how much bootleg gasoline or other petroleum products were in the tanks, which have a capacity of 4 million gallons.

Task force agents seized several file cabinets and cartons of records last February at Jolana offices in Hudson and Schenectady as well as documents at seven other locations.

On June 17, investigators from the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation discovered that gasoline had secretly been stored in three of the Hudson tanks without permits. The agency responded after thick gas vapors drifted blocks away from the tank farm, driving nearby residents from their homes.