Pause at Shinnecock gas station project amid Southhampton legal challenge

As the Shinnecock Indian Nation and the Town of Southampton prepare for a court battle over the tribe’s Sunrise Highway gas station development, the two sides have reached a tentative agreement to pause parts of the project until a judge rules on the town’s request for a preliminary injunction.

In court papers filed this week, lawyers for the seven Shinnecock trustees named in the case noted that they would direct construction contractors to halt work on the underground fuel storage tanks at the planned travel plaza until the ruling. The town's lawsuit seeks to permamently halt all consruction at the site.

It’s unclear how long it will take Judge Maureen T. Liccione in state Supreme Court in Riverhead to rule on the town's request.

The proposed order by the Shinnecock Nation's lawyers would stipulate that the tribe prevent the station's underground tanks from being filled with fuel, that fuel pumps not be connected or tanks covered, among other things. 

Work on the travel plaza began in April on the Nation's 80-acre Westwoods property. The station will have capacity for 20 fueling locations and 56 parking spots, plus retail and “drive-thru” areas. Steel girders for the building are already in place. 

Construction continued this week on other portions of the gas station site on tribal land on Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays. Shinnecock vice chairman Lance Gumbs said the tribe had not planned to connect or cover the tanks until an EPA inspection of the work anyway.

James Burke, an attorney for the town, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

In their request for an preliminary injunction in January, the town and its highway supervisor, Charles McArdle, argued that construction of the Nation's travel plaza would “materially alter the nature and use” of the tribe’s Westwood’s property, which they argued is “not part of the nation’s reservation.” It called the work “highly disruptive” and said it could cause “material adverse impacts to the surrounding community.”

The Nation argued that the "evidence fails to demonstrate that the challenged activities threaten genuine harm to the surrounding community." 

In papers filed Monday, the tribe’s lawyers argued that the judge should deny the motion for a preliminary injunction because the court “lacks jurisdiction” in the case after Westwoods was affirmed as restricted, sovereign land by the U.S. Department of the Interior in a notice in January.

In addition, the Nation’s lawyers wrote, a preliminary injunction would “endanger the economic security and future of the nation” and impair its property rights. 

The Nation also argued that the United States is an "indispensable" party to the case given the sovereign finding about Westwoods. Granting the injunction to block construction would "conflict with the United States’ obligations to protect" Westwoods' special status as "restricted-fee land" while violating federal law. 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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