Both Southampton Town and New York State have taken steps toward enacting new legislation on monitoring sand mines aimed at ensuring the safety of the underlying aquifer from contamination.
Southampton's proposal would mandate that a minimum of three groundwater testing wells be installed at all sand mines in the town. Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, who is sponsoring the legislation, told The Star that the goal is "to protect our water."
"It would be in conjunction with a third party — a hydrologist or an engineer working with a hydrologist," Mr. Schiavoni said. "If, heaven forbid, there is any contamination, that is the purview of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Suffolk County Department of Health. . . . Our requirement is to have this in place, and if there is any issue, then we would report any findings to the D.E.C. and the D.O.H."
Southampton Town has six sand mines in its jurisdiction, including Sand Land in Noyac. The town, along with local citizens and advocacy groups, have battled Sand Land in court during the last few years over alleged groundwater contamination.
Mr. Schiavoni said the monitoring wells are about "transparency and protecting our precious water supply. An inescapable truth is that this is the only viable source of drinking water in Southampton Town — on Long Island, really. To me it's a foregone conclusion and a fact that this has to be protected."
The town will hold a public hearing at 1 p.m. on Feb. 9. It will be accessible virtually.
An East Hampton Town official said on Tuesday that the town attorney is working on "similar draft legislation."
Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is proposing a statewide moratorium on mining in areas that are designated as special groundwater protection areas, where the D.E.C. or a local department of health has determined that a mine "has caused, or is contributing to, contamination of drinking water or groundwater resources."
The state legislation would expire in three years — timed to coincide with the conclusion of a state study on the impact of sand mining on water quality. The proposal will now be reviewed by the State Legislature's Environmental Conservation Committee.
"The hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to reverse the trend of declining water quality are a wasted investment if, at the same time, polluters are permitted to conduct business as usual," Mr. Thiele said in a statement. "Enactment of this legislation would not pose any threat to the operation of responsible sand mines that are critical to Long Island's economy. The only negative impact would be borne by polluters that compromise our most precious natural resource and our public health."
