Southampton Town mulls legal action against DEC after mining settlement

Southampton Town is considering legal action against the state Department of Environmental Conservation following a settlement that could allow a Noyac sand mine — which a Suffolk County study showed had negatively impacted groundwater — to operate for eight more years.

The DEC in September proposed requiring mining to stop at Sand Land in Noyac, where a study released by Suffolk County in June found elevated levels of manganese and iron in the groundwater concluding it was from mulching and composting on the site. Sand Land representatives, who have denied that the groundwater contamination was due to operations at the facility, appealed the DEC decision.

The state agency announced on March 15 it had reached an agreement that would allow the operation to continue for eight years and permit the mine to expand 40 feet deeper but require reclamation of the site in 10 years, a decision that surprised environmentalists, civic leaders and elected officials.

“We are not happy with the settlement the DEC reached,” Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said Tuesday, adding that the town is exploring its legal options. “I think I have made that expressively clear.”

The DEC said the settlement is a path to the mine’s closure without further litigation from Sand Land.

State officials noted the agreement prohibits the company from accepting new vegetative waste at the site, prevents horizontal expansion of the mine, institutes a groundwater monitoring program and provides additional financial security to ensure the mine is reclaimed within a decade.

“DEC’s ongoing and rigorous monitoring of this facility and investigation of its operations resulted in the final settlement, which imposes the most stringent requirements on any sand mining operation in the state,” a DEC spokeswoman said in an email.

Sand Land has submitted a revised mining permit application reflecting the settlement terms. The DEC is accepting public comment and will later make a final determination on the permit.

Schneiderman said the town zoning code prohibits new mining and said the settlement appears to contradict a previous DEC determination. On Sept. 10, the DEC denied a renewal for Sand Land’s mining permit, which was set to expire November 2018.

The September decision from Daniel Whitehead, the director of the DEC’s environmental permits division, notes the site has insufficient sand for mining and that the sand is in an area where organic waste was processed. Future mining in areas where organic waste was processed and stored has “the potential to allow the release of contaminants in that area which could impact the local groundwater,” the letter states.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) said he would join Southampton Town in a legal proceeding and plans to submit a bill that would prohibit the DEC from issuing mining permits for contaminated land that lies over sole source aquifers. It would also force the closure of mines over contaminated properties.

“There is no justification for permitting the removal of sand which is necessary to filter our groundwater to be removed from a contaminated property,” Thiele said in an email.

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.