LI company, homeowners fined for illegal sand mining

An Inwood construction company and two Melville homeowners have been fined $80,000 for illegally mining sand in a suburban backyard and for environmental violations that include filling in the hole with 8,000 cubic yards of construction debris.

"This is a classic case of what we have come to label as scoop-and-fill," said Peter Scully, regional director of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

A valuable construction commodity, sand can fetch at least $10 per cubic yard after processing, Scully said. Filling in the holes with construction debris then saves illegal dumpers on tipping fees they would otherwise be charged at landfills.

The DEC said about 6,000 of raw sand was mined from the Bagatelle Court property.

Scully said this is an illegal dumping pattern that has been repeated across Long Island in recent years and has led to a multiagency task force intended to crack down on solid waste violations.

The agency announced the penalty in the Melville case Monday after signing a consent order with Anthony Frank Falcone and Anthony Vincent Falcone, the owners of ADA Construction Corp. and Varatech Industries, Inc., and homeowners Holcombe and Rosanne Roderick of 7 Bagatelle Ct.

Another $70,000 in penalties will be imposed if violations are not corrected in the next few months, according to the order signed last month.

So far, the Falcones paid the state $64,000 and the Rodericks paid $16,000.

Neither the Falcones nor the Rodericks returned calls last night seeking comment.

According to the DEC, the trouble started in 2009, when neighbors reported an uptick in truck traffic on Bagatelle Court. Town of Huntington code enforcement officers noticed "a large excavation" behind a home, which is on one-acre land, there and issued a stop work order for mining without a town permit. The excavated area was supposed to be restored with clean fill. Instead, officials said, in went asphalt, soil and construction and demolition debris.

A subsequent DEC investigation also found that ADA Construction had "grossly exceeded" storage limits at an Inwood solid waste facility where the company was legally allowed to store 5,000 cubic yards of construction debris. Inspectors found about 23,000 cubic yards - enough to debris to fill more than 750 tractor-trailers.