DEC: Violators Agree to $130,000 Penalty for Illegally Dredging Lake Montauk

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced today that Richard Gibbs, the owner of  marina, and two marine contractors have agreed to a $130,000 penalty for illegally dredging Lake Montauk. In a press release, Regional Director Peter A. Scully said the penalty will include payments to the town's hard clam enhanced restoration project and the removal and sampling of the illegally dredged material.

In May 2010,  the DEC received a complaint from the Group for the East End that a road had been built in a tidal wetland at Rick's Crabby Cowboy on the northeast side of Lake Montauk. "The road had been built to allow an excavator and over-sized dump truck to drive into the regulated tidal wetland to dredge the marina," a press release issued on Thursday explained.

As a result, Gibbs, along with Keith Grimes, the owner of Keith Grimes Inc., and Susan Grimes, the owner of Sagaponack Sand and Gravel, were issued a total of 20 administrative violations, including storing construction and demolition debris without a permit and dredging without a permit.

With photographs from The Group that showed "a dewatering lagoon had also been constructed, complete with discharge pipes that channeled silt and sediment into Lake Montauk," according to the press release, the DEC moved forward with charges.

According to the environmental conservation department, permit for related work at the marina expired in 2009, but that the work being done in May was "much different that what had been originally authorized," the press release said. The DEC had issued a permit in 2004 that would allow for a bulkhead to be replaced and maintenance dredging.

What the DEC said it discoverd was an "expansion of a natural sandbar for the creation of a road on which heavy, non-permitted equipment could conduct dredging activities" and the use of non-permitted hydraulic dredging equipment. The Grimes had also reportedly made "a diked area for dewatering of dredging sludge" and had placed the dredge spoils on a sandbar in a tidal wetland.

Despite issuing a stop work order while the DEC was investigating the initial complaint, it discovered more activity at Rick's Crabby Cowboy in mid-June. "Further violations included the removal of a dredged material from the marina site to a mining facility." That facility, on Haines Path in Bridgehampton, is not permitted to accept solid waste.

On Dec. 6, the accused violators agreed to pay $50,000 to the DEC, and $25,000 to the Environmental Benefit Project to support East Hampton Town's Lake Montauk aquaculture project, dedicated to the restoration of hard clams and American oysters. Though the total penalty is $130,000, $55,000 of that will be suspended if they sample the dredge spoil that was stored at the marina and at Sagaponack Sand and Gravel and remove it to an approved drop-off facility.

Robert S. DeLuca, the president of The Group, said on Thursday, "We're satisified that the DEC took the right action," including "a pretty steep penalty."

A significant fine was not the only part he was happy to see in the adjudication, but that the penalty will be reinvesed back into the environment through the clam restoration program. He also said it is important that the dredge spoils will be tested to see if its sand, heavy metals, bottom paints, etc.

He believes the penalty sent a message that, "Lake Montauk and water bodies in particular are really deserving of fragile handling."

A call to Keith Grimes and Susan Grimes was not immediately returned. An email was sent to Richard Gibbs requesting comment.