Letters

Hats off to Councilman Bill Pell, and the Southampton Town Board majority, for adopting a new nonconforming sand mine amortization law [“Southampton Town Board Adopts Sand Mine Amortization Law,” 27east.com, April 9]. It’s a legislative mouthful, but the outcome is extremely important for the future of our environment.

Like the Long Island Landfill Law, Pine Barrens Protection Act, Community Preservation Fund, and the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act before it, this important new law has roots in decades of experience with the value of groundwater protection, and the costly public consequences of indifference.

On Long Island, most sand mines, like old landfills, excavate deep holes in the earth, which reduce the natural buffering and degradation of contaminants provided by topsoil and forest floor microbes. Such excavations also bring the water table closer to the surface, where contaminants related to mining and other frequently co-located industrial operations can more easily reach, and more rapidly disperse into the underground drinking water supply below.

In Southampton Town, a number of sand mines commenced operation before the adoption of protections now found in the residential zoning for sensitive groundwater areas (including the prohibition of mining). Under the general tenets of zoning, these “preexisting, nonconforming” uses, are supposed to wind down (not expand) over a reasonable period, leaving future land use to the requirements of current zoning.

Unfortunately, the State Department of Environmental Conservation long contended that the agency, and not the local zoning authority, had final say over nonconforming mine expansions, despite decades-old state legislation to the contrary.

Unable to resolve the conflict with DEC, Southampton Town, alongside numerous citizens, community and environmental organizations, challenged the issue and ultimately won a landmark and unanimous decision in New York’s highest court. In short, the DEC had it wrong.

Unfortunately, Southampton’s groundwater paid a price when contamination was ultimately confirmed, but it’s never too late to stand up for the future of this region’s precious environment.

With its authority firmly established, Southampton Town could finally take action to create a rational, legal process through which specified nonconforming sand mines would finally cease operations over time (based on valid permits and established sand supply), and begin critical site reclamation — and it did.

Then, last week, after several months of discussion, debate, public hearings and substantive review, the Town Board majority adopted this new but long-awaited environmental legislation. And although none of it was easy, in the end, the rules are clear, and the town stayed true to its long-held water quality and land use commitments.

For this, we believe the broadest interests of the community are better served for the future, and we thank the Town Board leadership that finally addressed this longstanding and challenging issue.

Bob DeLuca

President

Group for the East End