Legislature passes bill giving local governments more say over sand mining regulations

The State Legislature on Wednesday passed a bill that would give Long Island’s county and local governments new authority over sand mining operations to better protect water quality.

The region’s 23 sand mines provide a necessary ingredient for construction, but environmentalists say its extraction could negatively impact groundwater by removing filtering layers of rock and soil.

Local governments, particularly on the East End, have at times been at odds with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which both regulates and ensures the stability of the industry. The law would give local governments the ability to prohibit mining where it is “inconsistent with water quality protection and public health.”

“It’s another tool in the many that we need to reverse the trend of declining water quality and to maintain good water quality for Long Island,” said Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor), the bill’s sponsor in the Assembly.

The law applies to counties with a population of 1 million or more residents that draw their drinking water from a sole source aquifer, which in New York State only includes Nassau and Suffolk counties. It allows municipalities to prohibit mining when the state or local government has documented groundwater contamination caused by the site or where debris is processed, stored and sold.

“Long Island’s sole source aquifer is too precious to turn a blind eye to, and if it means that more government agencies are involved to make sure sand mining is not undermining our water quality, then I think it’s something it’s time for,” said Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach), the bill’s sponsor in the Senate.      

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo must sign the bill for it to become law.

Marc Herbst, president of the Long Island Contractors’ Association, issued a scathing rebuke of the legislation and urged Cuomo to veto it.

“The legislation has been disingenuously promoted as an environmental protection act,” Herbst said in a statement. “In reality it is a half-baked measure orchestrated by an assemblyman that is overreacting to an isolated local dispute and a senator with an insatiable addiction to press headlines. … Sand is the lifeblood of union construction projects in the New York metropolitan region. This is an irresponsible response during a pandemic that will ultimately usurp DEC oversight of this industry.”

Kaminsky said if businesses operate within the law then “they should have no problem here, and it should not concern them that either Nassau or Suffolk counties would have additional oversight authority.”

The bill was sparked in part by an October 2019 Suffolk County Special Grand Jury report recommending such legislation.

“The LICA is incorrect in stating that the legislation usurps DEC authority,” Thiele said. “This legislation grants concurrent jurisdiction over mining on Long Island to protect our drinking water, just as the DEC and local governments share responsibility to protect our wetlands. Responsible businesses have nothing to fear from this legislation.” 

The law in its justification cites the controversial Sand Land site in Noyac, where a 2018 Suffolk County Department of Health Services report found that mulching and composting caused “significant adverse impacts on groundwater.” Sand Land attorney Brian Matthews has repeatedly disputed the findings, as has the DEC in court filings.

Bob DeLuca, president of the environmental nonprofit Group for the East End, lauded the bill’s passage.

“It makes it clear to the agency [the DEC] that you cannot act as if it’s business as usual when you have contamination of the groundwater aquifer that’s the source of drinking water,” he said.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.