Officials decry shoreline work on Poospatuck reservation, but chief pushes back

Suffolk County and Brookhaven Town officials have appealed to the state to investigate an “environmental catastrophe unfolding in our region” as a result of shoreline construction work at the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic. But a tribal leader denounced the accusation as "scapegoating." 

In a letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation on Friday, County Executive Edward P. Romaine and Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico described “adverse ongoing shore line activities” at the juncture of Poospatuck Creek and the Forge River. They charged the work involved the “apparent destruction of regulated tidal wetlands from filling and grading activities.” The letter is also signed by Legis. James F. Mazzarella (R-Moriches). 

The officials also said the work, which in accompanying photos showed the shoreline expanded and raised with new materials, could lead to “adverse water-quality impacts to the adjacent coastal waters,” including from sedimentation and “fill activities” with materials of “unknown source.”

Aerial photos also showed “significant amount of unconsolidated sediment has washed from the unvegetated adjacent upland area into the creek," the officials wrote. "We are concerned that the fill material may contain problematic constituents that could impact not only the local estuarine environment, but also have greater impacts to the broader South Shore Estuary Reserve.”

But Harry Wallace, chief of the Unkechaug Indian Nation, a state-recognized tribe, said he has yet to be contacted by any of the officials about their concerns and noted the nation is “not participating in any construction on the shoreline.”

“They are complaining that we are destroying wetlands, when in fact they have already destroyed wetland by bulkheading all their property and putting up water barricades on [non-tribal] property” on nearby waterways, he said. “As a result, all that water energy has to go someplace and it goes onto our land and causes tremendous erosion. The nation does not condone the destruction of wetlands.”

Wallace said he’s previously reached out to federal, state and local officials to address shoreline erosion in the waterfront community, but “the response that we have received in the past is that it’s ‘not our problem.' "

He called the comments in the letter about a unfolding environmental “catastrophe,” an “attempt at fear mongering and scapegoating. We won’t respond to scapegoating.” Wallace declined to discuss specific properties or alleged land modifications by tribal members. 

Panico, in an interview, said he raised the issue when Gov. Kathy Hochul was on Long Island last week and met privately with supervisors. He said Hochul’s office said it was “reviewing the matter.” A spokeswoman for Hochul didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

In a statement, the DEC said it "engaged in initial conversations with the Unkechaug Nation earlier this month on concerns raised by the Town of Brookhaven regarding activities of Nation members on or adjacent to reservation lands. DEC formally requested consultation with Nation leadership and through that engagement will determine next steps to protect public health and the environment."

Panico said he’d like the state to test the material used to shore up the property to determine “if toxic materials were used for any aspect of filling.” He said he was told the affected property on the reservation amounted to about 165 feet of shoreline. Brookhaven owns the river bottom while the town and the nation own separate sections of the waterways.

Wallace, who said the nation this past weekend held its annual strawberry festival, said, “I will always defend our nation’s rights as a sovereign people, and I will never succumb to threats of animosity or hate.”

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.