State attorney general, DEC chief sue contractor, cite illegal construction near Carlls River wetlands
The state attorney general and the interim head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation have announced a lawsuit seeking $591,000 in civil penalties against the owner of realty and contracting firms for illegally building a parking lot and storing heavy-duty construction vehicles in a protected area near wetlands of the Carlls River in West Babylon.
Attorney General Letitia James and Interim DEC Commissioner Sean Mahar said in a statement Friday that Anthony Labriola and his affiliated companies, ALAC Realty LLC and ALAC Contracting Corp., have since 2015 failed to comply with his agreement with the DEC to remove the construction vehicles, clean up the site and replant it with native vegetation.
They said in February 2015, the DEC issued a violation notice to Labriola “after discovering that he had illegally cleared trees and vegetation and built a parking lot on top of the protected Carlls River wetlands-adjacent buffer area on a property his company owns at 420 Falmouth Road in West Babylon.”
“Despite DEC’s enforcement efforts and Labriola's agreement to remove the construction equipment from the protected area and revegetate it with native plantings, Labriola repeatedly failed to comply, and instead continued to use the area illegally as parking and storage for his construction business, ALAC Contracting,” the statement said.
As a result, James and Maher are seeking an injunction requiring Labriola and ALAC Realty to “completely remove” the stored vehicles and equipment and “revegetate” the area with native trees and other plantings and pay $371,000 in civil penalties.
The state officials also were seeking “to compel ALAC Contracting to pay civil penalties of no less than $220,000 and to remove all of its vehicles and equipment from the regulated area covered by DEC’s consent order with Labriola and ALAC Realty.”
Labriola could not be reached for comment Friday.
The DEC estimated that Labriola and his companies saved nearly $150,000 by storing vehicles and equipment “on the illegally utilized area” they would have had to otherwise pay to use commercial space in the area.
James and Maher said the Carlls River is the fourth-longest river on Long Island. “These wetlands have DEC’s highest classification for the benefits they offer, including providing wildlife habitats, and flood control and protecting water quality on Long Island.”
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