Department of Environmental Conservation

Representatives of environmental groups, community groups and local government officials across eastern Suffolk County turned out for a two-hour, wide-ranging conversation with state legislators Thursday morning in Riverhead. 

The site operator, Driftwood Family Farms, has no DEC permit or registration for a mulch processing facility at the 42-acre Calverton site the DEC confirmed this week.

For the first time, the State DEC will undertake the widespread application of herbicides to Ludwigia in the Peconic River, in the hope of eradicating the invasive, noxious weed that has infested about 50 acres of the river since it was first detected there in 2003.

Riverhead Town has filed a lawsuit challenging the DEC’s handling of a n application for a permit needed to subdivide vacant land at the EPCAL site and the agency's position that Suffolk County Water Authority, not the town, has the right to supply water to new development there.

Riverhead Town is hiring a law firm to challenge the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s handling of the CMA Mine application to expand an existing mine at the corner of Youngs and Osborn avenues in Calverton.

Since at least the late 1990s, the Riverhead Water District has built its current distribution system without permits required by state law, installing miles of water mains to serve hundreds of residential and commercial developments across the Town of Riverhead.

State environmental officials say they have detected a parasite in local bay scallops believed to be a contributing factor in the scallop die-off last year.

In an effort to stop the spread of the deadly oak wilt fungus, the state has imposed restrictions on the shipment of firewood out of Suffolk and banned the shipment of oak trees and any portion of an oak tree.

The invasive Giant Hogweed has been moving across New York state, and has now made its way to Riverhead.

Due to elevated saxitoxin levels in mussel samples from Meetinghouse Creek, there is a temporary emergency closure of both Terry and Meetinghouse creeks.