Mr. Milo owns or co-owns major garbage hauling companies with annual gross revenues of about $70 million.

Federal authorities depict him as organized crime's pivotal figure in extracting payoffs from New York City's private garbage hauling industry.

Larger installations especially, where garbage hauling is a major and expensive operation, currently have economic and legislative incentives to move towards operating own converters.

Icy blue and piercing, they seem to reflect the personality of a restless entrepreneur who has shown over the years that he can master almost any industry, from garbage hauling to professional sports to video rentals.

For example, he said, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center paid $1.2 million annually for garbage hauling in the early 1990's; now it pays $480,000.

Doubling at Fresh Kills More than anything else, a year-old fight over garbage hauling and sorting has galvanized the neighborhood on environmental issues.

Kucinich also began reviewing all of the garbage hauling contracts after coming to office.

It may seem odd that the Government is running one of New York City's biggest private garbage hauling companies.

The businesses handled 80% of garbage hauling in southern and western Connecticut, and Westchester and Putnam counties in New York.

The investigations would monitor the garbage hauling, as well as look into such other potential problems as the flow of sewage and illegal dumping.