NORTHAMPTON - City officials say a waste-hauling firm that was operating without permits for nearly a year has cleaned up properties that were deemed illegal transfer stations and a public health nuisance.

However, the Department of Public Works is still owed nearly $35,000 in unpaid landfill fees from BNB Waste Services of Northampton, money it now seeks to recoup through legal avenues. The figure owed reaches more than $40,000 with penalties and interest.

City officials say the company had been accumulating and storing waste and debris on at least two properties last year - 52 Glendale Road and 127 Williams St. - operations they said were in effect illegal transfer stations. The latter address is the headquarters of the company, which is owned by Brian and Laura Maziarz. Neither could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Brian Maziarz is a former landfill worker who was employed by a private company that previously managed the facility.

Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup issued a preliminary injunction in late December against BNB Waste Services, ordering the company to clean up its properties. It had not done so, despite repeated attempts by the city's health department to stop the activity.

Immediately following the court order, the city issued a one-week waste-hauling permit to the company so it could comply with the order, a permit that expired Dec. 29.

"The biggest issue, from my perspective, is that a waste services company was operating without any oversight," Ben Wood, the city's health director, said this week. "The immediate threat has subsided."

Wood said he inspected 127 Williams St. to ensure the company had complied with the court order, but had not yet re-inspected 52 Glendale Road, where Wood said "a lot of material" had been stored in the past. Wood said that to the best of his knowledge, BNB Waste Services has removed the debris and waste from that address as well.

Health officials went to the courts because the storage of trash, rubbish and debris on residential properties is a public nuisance and immediate threat to public health. The city also was concerned that BNB Waste Services had been storing waste and debris in other places that weren't publicly known.

The court order banned BNB Waste Services from operating in Northampton until it had obtained the required commercial waste hauler permits from the DPW, which issues about 450 waste hauler permits annually.

In addition to two cease-and-desist orders issued by the health department last year, the DPW had cut the company off from hauling waste to the landfill off Glendale Road in February 2011 after it fell behind on invoices by about three months. The company had previously obtained waste-hauling permits each year dating back to 2004.

Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.