Judge grants injunction against Sand Land mine

A state judge has granted Southampton Town’s request to bar a controversial Noyac sand mine from processing debris on the site, an order local officials touted as a victory in the protracted legal battle over the property.

The order handed down June 11 by State Supreme Court Justice Denise Molia grants Southampton Town’s 2016 request for a temporary injunction prohibiting Sand Land from processing brush, leaves, trees or construction debris at the site. The town had said Sand Land, which is owned by Wainscott Sand & Gravel, violated local zoning laws and its own certificate of occupancy by continuing those operations.

Mulching and composting are common secondary uses at sand mines, although environmentalists say byproducts from those activities can leech into the groundwater.

Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor), a critic of the mine and sponsor of several state bills to regulate sand mining, applauded the order.

“This decision is a major victory for the environment, the town, and our community at large,” he said in a news release. “However, there is still plenty of work to be done with regard to the mining operations at Sand Land that have posed a real and continuing threat to our environment and the viability of our drinking water.”

Sand Land attorney Brian Matthews said his client will abide the order, but contested the assertion that Sand Land posed an environmental threat.

Both Matthews and the state Department of Environmental Conservation have disputed a 2018 Suffolk County Health Services Department report that found mulching operations at the mine negatively impacted the groundwater. Thiele and environmentalists have stood by the county study.

“The assemblymen’s disregard of established facts to advance a false narrative is not only willful and actionable, but does a disservice to his constituents who should expect more,” Matthews said.

Still, Sand Land had agreed to stop storing and processing organic waste as part of a 2019 settlement with the DEC that allowed the mine to operate until 2027. A separate lawsuit filed by the town, Thiele and others seeking to overturn the settlement is pending in State Supreme Court in Albany. 

The debris case is due back in State Supreme Court July 20.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She 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.