Sand mining

The state's highest court rejected the argument that mine owners have a constitutional right to mine their parcels to an indefinite depth.

Charging the State Department of Environmental Conservation with flagrant violations of the state law, Riverhead Town is asking a court to nullify the agency's decision against an in-depth environmental review for the expansion of a Calverton mine to a depth 89 feet below groundwater.

Riverhead Town has signed on to an amicus brief in an appeal being defended by Southampton Town in a sand-mining case that could have implications for towns across the region.

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.

Plans to dig a Calverton sand and gravel mine to a depth of 100 feet — 89 feet below the groundwater table — are advancing at the State Department of Environmental Conservation, to the dismay of Riverhead Town officials and community residents.

CMA Mine, which has a permit to mine a 20-acre site on the southwest corner of Osborn and Youngs avenues, wants to expand the mine vertically, by digging to a depth of 100 feet — 89 feet below the groundwater table — and constructing an 8.5-acre lake.

A decades-long legal battle over sand mining in Calverton is rekindled, but this time, town gets preliminary injunction up front.