Five men, including four former high-ranking Fairfield officials, were charged in connection with a lengthy probe into hazardous materials disposed at a town waste facility, and their efforts to conceal the extent of the contamination and avoid millions of dollars in remediation, arrest records show.

Among those arrested were the the former director of public works, Joseph Michelangelo, and the interim director of public works, Brian Carey, as well as the former superintendent for public works, Scott Bartlett. They all faces charges related to illegally dumping toxic PCBs, according to police said.

Police also charged the town’s former human resources director Emmet Hibson and Robert Grabarerk, an employee of Osprey Environmental Engineering that was hired by the town, police said.

The charges stem first from an investigation into how a company, Julian Development, allowed contaminated material to be dumped at a town public works property they managed, and then subsequently how officials allowed materials with unsafe levels of PCBs to be used to build a berm around the property, according to authorities.

Julian Development, authorities said, allowed “tremendous” volumes of contaminated material including PCBs, lead and other waste, to be dumped at the town property, in part because of a lack of oversight from town officials.

Initial remediation cost the town about $280,000 in 2017, but upon completion about 100,000 cubic yards of material was left behind at the site.

Authorities said that in response to complaints from residents, these town officials, working with Osprey Environmental Engineering, approved the building of a berm around the perimeter of the property to shield the pile of material from view. The material from the site used to build the berm had tested positive for PCBs, but town officials and the engineering firm approved it anyway, authorities said.

In lengthy arrest warrants, investigators detailed how the men knew that the soil tested had levels of PCBs that would require they notify the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The soil would have had to be removed from the site and not be used in the berm.

In a public meeting, Michelangelo said that more than 30,000 cubic yards of material were used to create the berm, which had slopes up to 45 feet high.

“The illegal use of approximately 30,000 cubic yards of PCB contaminated material in construction of the berm allowed Michelangelo, Barlett and Cary to avoid another unbudgeted and costly remediation expense to the town,” an investigator wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit.

The investigator said that the cost of proper remediation would have further shown the “severe financial and environmental consequences of their failure to monitor Julian Development activities while operating on town property.”

The town officials repeatedly represented their actions as saving the town money, the investigator wrote.

The town’s attorney estimates it will cost between $5 to $10 million to remediate the site. Arrest records show that the cost of building the berm was budgeted at $65,000.

The workers who built the berm, many of whom were interviewed by investigators, were kept in the dark about the level of contamination at the site, the warrant shows.

The berm was built without any knowledge or approval by DEEP, which regulates the handling of contaminated materials, according to investigators.

The town officials arrested told both the town’s board of finance and residents that the materials used in the berm were not contaminated, but testing shows high levels of PCBs, according to the warrant.

The charges announced this week marked the second set of arrests following the discovery of contaminated materials at the Fairfield public works site.

All five were charged with illegal disposal of PCB’s and conspiracy to commit that illegal disposal. Bartlett, Carey and Michelangelo also were charged with receiving solid waste without a permit, illegal disposal of solid waste and conspiracy to dispose solid waste without a permit. All were released on written promises to appear Dec. 4 in Superior Court in Bridgeport.

Fairfield police investigated the matter with authorities from the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney’s environmental crimes unit.

Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at nrondinone@courant.com.

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