Riverhead Town has shut down a sand mining operation in Calverton — at least for now.
A State Supreme Court Justice on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining T.S. Haulers and Edward Partridge, owners of a 154 acres of agricultural land, who, according to town officials, have been sand mining without a permit.
The State DEC issued two notices of violation alleged sand mining there this year, Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said today. One was issued in May and a second one earlier this month, he said.
The DEC is currently investigating ongoing activities at the site, according to the agency.
The owners of the property were in extended litigation with the town in the 1990s and 2000s over its right to mine sand there. The DEC at the time had issued the property owner a mine permit, despite the town’s 1998 ban on sand mines, based on the town Zoning Board of Appeals’ 1997 code interpretation that sand mining was a “non-nuisance industry” for which the owner could be issued a special permit of the town board.
On Oct. 6, the town board authorized litigation against the property owners and hired the firm of Sinnreich, Kosakoff and Messina to bring an injunction action against Partridge and T.S. Haulers.
“It was a combined effort of the building department, code enforcement and the police department, to build the case,” Walter said.
The matter will have its first hearing on the injunction action Nov. 12.
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