State, feds: Harbourview Shoppes in Roslyn polluted Hempstead Harbor
Harbourview Shoppes along Old Northern Boulevard in Roslyn, shown here in 2023. Credit: Howard Simmons
A lawsuit from federal and state agencies alleges that a Roslyn shopping center has been discharging contamination into Hempstead Harbor.
The drain system for Harbourview Shoppes, a 34,000-square-foot facility on Old Northern Boulevard, has been pumping pollutants into the waterway, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Eastern District.
The lawsuit was brought by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, which acted on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, the complaint states. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is also named as a plaintiff, via the state Attorney General's Office.
“Clean water is a basic right for every New Yorker," state Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. "For too long, Harbourview Shoppes has polluted Hempstead [Harbor] with illegal discharge, putting families and communities in Roslyn at risk and violating our environmental laws."
The shopping center's French drainage system has an "illicit connection" to a Nassau County operated catch basin on Old Northern Boulevard, which connects into a Roslyn Village storm sewer system and empties into the harbor, according to the lawsuit.
Federal and state authorities are asking the court to enjoin Harbourview Realty LLC, which owns the shopping center, "from discharging pollutants from their illicit connections" into Hempstead Harbor, and to "disconnect all illicit connections." The plaintiffs are also asking for Harbourview to pay civil penalties of up to $68,445 per day for violating the federal Clean Water Act and to pay the DEC up to $37,500 per day for violating the state's Environmental Control Act.
Mary Hauptman, the principal of Harbourview, declined to comment through her Uniondale-based attorney, E. Christopher Murray.
Murray said in an interview that he was "shocked" by the lawsuit.
"They were fined, and they cleaned it up, and the situation was remedied," Murray said. He said the shopping center has since tested its water and did not detect any pollution.
"Now three years later, we get this complaint seeking huge amounts of money from us?" Murray said. "I just don't understand how, in good faith, you could do that."
Harbourview Shoppes bills itself as an "upscale shopping center" in Roslyn Village and includes several restaurants, a spa and car rental service, according to its website.
In March 2023, the DEC received a citizen's complaint about "continuous flooding" in the shopping center's underground garage that was discharging into the county catch basin, according to the complaint.
"Contractors employed by or on behalf of Defendants pumped out Harbourview Shoppes’ indoor basins, wells, grease traps and manholes and discharged the contaminated water, wastewater and other material" that eventually reached the harbor, according to the lawsuit.
DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said in a statement that the DEC was "committed to holding polluters accountable."
“The facility's ongoing noncompliance with environmental law required immediate action to protect local residents and the environment," she said.
Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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