virginias a wasteland

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From Rolling Stone Magazine October 20, 2005 Issue 985

The Other Bush Brother: MARVIN'S DIRTY SECRET

With Tom DeLay under indictment in the House, Bill Frist under investigation for insider trading in the Senate and Karl Rove suspected of outing an undercover CIA agent, corruption in Washington hasn't been so rampant since Watergate. Even the president's own family is caught up in shady deals and political favors from high-ranking officials. Over the past four years, court records reveal, Bush's youngest brother, Marvin, has invested heavily in the nation's dirtiest industry - garbage - and profited handsomely from illegal dumping.

In 2001, Winston Partners, an investment firm co-founded by Marvin, paid $12.3 million to buy a waste-disposal company called Tellurian Inc. The firm was created with a single purpose: to dump waste in a landfill in rural Page County, Virginia. A state permit allowed Tellurian to dispose of no more than 250 tons a day. But after Marvin took over, the company - rechristened National Waste Services of Virginia - dumped as many as 6,500 tons of waste per day, much of it trucked in from other states. "Marvin was well informed about what we were doing," says Stephen Frey, who chaired NWS.

Each day the firm exceeded its permit was a misdemeanor, punishable by a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. But the state inspector responsible for monitoring the landfill testified that his boss, Ray Tesh, told him not to cite Bush's firm for all of its overdumping violations, saying he didn't want to "antagonize NWS." In 2003, Tesh left the state environmental agency. His new job: managing operator of Bush's landfill.

Tim Kaine, the Democratic lieutenant governor of Virginia, finally blew the whistle on the illegal dumping in July 2003. But the landfill stayed open - and continued to violate its permit - for another eight months. "We've got bills to pay," Frey told reporters. Bush got help from Jerry Kilgore, the state's Republican attorney general, who repeatedly delayed hearings on the violations, turning a blind eye as Marvin's company continued to dump more than 1,000 tons per day. While the hearings remained stalled, Kilgore was tapped to head President Bush's re-election campaign in Virginia.

The state finally ordered the dump to shut down in March 2004. Marvin's company declared bankruptcy, and taxpayers woulnd up specdking $8.5 million to reopen the landfill. Kilgore levied no fines, brought no criminal charges and kept the Bush name out of the mess.

Marvin's illegal dumping hasn't hurt his standing in the family: He's widely known as the president's favorite brother. As their father George H.W., told Larry King last fall, "Marvin is very, very close to the president. And he's given him great brotherly comfort. George would be up at Camp David, and he'll call Marvin. Marvin may have other plans. 'Marv, you've got to get up here.' And they just, the two of them, like a couple of little kids bonding. And this is very important to our family. And very important to the president. And I think Marv loves it."