Letters

In 2015, the Suffolk County Department of Health was directed by the County Legislature (Resolution 245-2015) to inspect groundwater quality at the Sand Land mine operations. The study was delayed when the owner of Sand Land mine “refused to provide access, forcing the department to obtain a court order to move forward.”

In the words of then Suffolk County legislator, Bridget Fleming: “The evidence shows significant negative groundwater impacts from the waste management activities occurring at the site, including manganese exceeding drinking water standards by almost 100 times, and iron by over 200 times, as well as elevated levels of contaminants such as thallium, sodium, nitrate, ammonia and gross alpha …”

In December 2023, The New York Times reported that the Department of Conservation intends to conduct a three-year study of groundwater contamination at 22 sand mining sites on Long Island. Unfortunately, according to the article, Sarah Meyland, a water management consultant, states that the study “lacked rigor because, among other reasons, participation in the study is voluntary. Of the region’s 22 active mines, just four are taking part” (Sand Land is not one of them).

Makes one wonder: What’s to hide?

Hydrologist Ron Paulsen and author of the Suffolk County Health Department report on sand mine contamination zeros in on the matter: “It’s not that mining doesn’t have a place,” Mr. Paulsen said. “It’s where and how you do it.”

Precisely.

Along those lines, it doesn’t take too long to find out that the state’s Mined Land Reclamation Law’s Declaration of Policy (23-2703) stipulates that “orderly development of mineral resources need to be compatible with sound environmental management practices.”

Sound environmental practices recognize that sand mine operations are permitted and that they have a useful life that must be managed. The form of managing that operation is amortization. Amortization is widely used throughout the United States. (Even Texas, the excavation and extractive mecca, regulates its sand mining operations.)

The big four consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, offers forums and lectures on the amortization of sand mines. Stage 6 is this: “Closure and Rehabilitation. Closure after mining operations have ceased and includes restoration of the site. Closure costs include: employee severance costs and restoration/ rehabilitation and environmental expenditure.”

In relation to Sand Land mine operations, the Southampton Town Board is right to move to a amortization process, and Town Board member Bill Pell’s resolution, which incorporates principles in the state’s Mined Land Reclamation Law, as well as established amortization methods, should be adopted.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton

Anthony is a former chair of the Southampton Democratic Committee — Ed.