Marina owner fined over Lake Montauk dredging

The owner of a Montauk marina and two other marine contractors have been fined $130,000 for illegal dredging on Lake Montauk, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said Thursday.

Richard Gibbs, owner of Rick's Crabby Cowboy Marina; Keith Grimes, owner of Keith Grimes Inc., an excavation firm; and Susan Grimes, owner of Sagaponack Sand and Gravel; dredged the lake without a proper permit and illegally deposited dredge spoil on a sandbar in the tidal wetland, the state agency said in a news release.

Gibbs had received a permit for dredging and other excavation work in 2004, said the DEC, but it expired in 2009. He continued dredging this summer, using Keith Grimes' company, after the permit expired, and used hydraulic equipment not authorized under the original permit, according to the release.

In addition, he expanded a natural sandbar into a road "on which heavy, non-permitted equipment could conduct dredging activities," the agency said.

Gibbs said Thursday he agreed to pay the fine because "fighting it would have been more expensive."

Gibbs said he had renewed his permit with the Town of East Hampton and had an oral OK from the DEC to continue work he had not completed under the original permit. He also said he had operated in the past with an oral go-ahead from the agency.

"I would not have dredged if I did not think I had a permit," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said he has a 41/2-acre oyster farm on the surface of the lake, near his marina, and is concerned about water quality and environmental issues in the area.

Calls seeking comment from the Grimeses, who are married, were not immediately returned.

Under the agreement, $75,000 in fines was paid immediately - $50,000 to the DEC and $25,000 to the Environmental Benefit Project, East Hampton's Lake Montauk aquaculture project that is geared toward the restoration of hard clams and American oysters.

The remaining $55,000 penalty will be suspended if Gibbs and the Grimes comply with all conditions of the order. The DEC said the three have agreed that dredge spoil stored both at the marina and Sagaponack Sand and Gravel must be properly "sampled and removed to an approved facility."

Dredge spoil can be contaminated, said DEC spokeswoman Aphrodite Montalvo, "so it must be sampled and then disposed of in accordance with agency regulations."

Peter Scully, regional director of the DEC, said the penalties show how serious the department is about such violations.

"Not only have the responsible parties been properly prosecuted, but also additional resources will be directly contributed in order to enhance the area that has been impacted by these illegal operations," he said in a statement.

Scully also credited the efforts of the Group for the East End, which complained about a road being built illegally in the tidal wetland at the marina.

The group also provided photographs of a lagoon that had been built to channel discharged silt and sediment into Lake Montauk, the release said.