Controversial Wood Chips Once Again On Town Board Agenda

Wood chips were once again the talk of the town board in Riverhead last week.

According to Riverhead Town Attorney Bob Kozakiewicz, Kristian Agoglia, the president of Looks Great Services, Inc., a property maintenance company in Huntington Village, has, under the auspices of Justin Purchasing, has once again sought to bring 150,000 cubic yard of wood chips to a Sound Avenue property.

According to attorney for the applicant Mary Hartill, the goal would be to ultimately share the soil with other farmers.

Councilman George Gabrielsen said if the soil was shared the site becomes a processing facility.

"If it's being brought there to resell or to convey to others it takes on the appearance of a commercial operation and can no longer be entitled to an ag exemption," Kozakiewicz said.

Agoglia first approached the board with the suggestion earlier when he brought Sandy debris to the site.

Councilman John Dunleavy said he wanted to help farmers and if the wood chips helped with better soil for their property, it wasn't a commercial endeavor.

"I don't know where you draw the line," Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said. "There are plenty of landscapers that own tracts of land with crops."

Gabrielsen suggested the idea go back before the ag advisory committee.

Councilman Jim Wooten said when the idea was first broached after Sandy, there were concerns that the Sandy debris would serve as a catalyst for wood chip farming and the issue was saturation point.

Kozakiewicz said based on legal precedent, he did not think wood chips are considered a crop.

"Where does it stop?" Walter asked, adding that to take 150,000 cubic yards, he'd prefer a micribiologist or engineer's report. The supervisor also reminded that there have been a series of compost fires in Riverhead and expressed concerns for volunteers called out to battle those blazes, which seem to reignite, he said.

Walter also said if the door were opened for the Sound Avenue property, it could lead to other farmers coming forward with the same requests.

Kozakiewicz said where there have been fires at composting facilities, individuals have been cited and would continue to be.

Gabrielsen again said the volume, which would equate to 5000 tractor trailers, was a concern.

Hartill said she wanted to be sure if an engineer's report was sought, it was the proper report. 

Walter said he did not believe he would support the proposal. "It's development, and once you open that door. . . " he said.

Hartill stressed that the applicant had adhered to town code and was following Department of Environmental Conservation regulations.

The board sent the proposal back to the ag advisory committee.

In January, Walter raised questions about the operation on Sound Avenue, which had been accepting trees and storm debris until a stop work order was issued by the town last month.

According to Kozakiewicz, Agoglia, the president of Looks Great Services, Inc., had, under the auspices of Justin Purchasing, been bringing trees to a parcel located at 4116 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

The operation was taking place on a farm at the site; the owners of the farm did not wish to be identified, Kozakiewicz said.

Kozakiewicz said he wanted to update the board at that time. "A lot of information has been twisted and distorted," he said, adding that the items proposed to be recycled at the site are trees, "not sludge, not unadulterated material, not plastic."

The material has been tested and has been ascertained to be tree materials, and not contaminated with Asian beetle or any other diseases. "We're not talking about stuff that will contaminate the soil and cause a problem," he said.

Walter asked if the materials were being processed at the site. 

Attorney Mary Hartill said she, along with Agoglia, met with the town's agricultural advisory committee.

"As a result of what they presented to us, the ag advisory board came to a unanimous concensus that the use is incidental to related to the ag use on the property currently," Kozakiewicz said.

The wood, Hartill said, "turns into soil." The goal, she said, was to import wood chips then shred them to less than one inch in a short period of time. After that, the wood will be placed in wind rows and left to decompose over six to 18 months; no nitrogen or any other chemical would be injected, she said.

The plan, she added, was consistent with recommendations made by the DEC.

Dunleavy asked how close to Sound Avenue the wind rows would extend.

Hartill said the wind rows would be sited on the back seven acres of the site.

Gabrielsen said in January, as he did last week, that the concern was volume. The material's delivery, Kozakiewicz said, is tracked by GPS in true time.

The amount, Gabrielsen said, would cover 40 acres, 12 inches deep.

Hartill said after processing, the material gets reduced by over 50 percent, to an end result of about an inch; the material would take up seven acres at the back of the farm, not the entire 40.

Walter questioned whether the proposed operation was a commercial composting facility, much like what exists in Center Moriches. "If you can't use the material on that farm then you seem to be commercial composting."

Gabrielsen said the material could be used on the farm.

Walter said he'd like to see an engineering report for a volume analysis; Gabrielsen said some farmers have expressed concerns that the town would start regulating their operations.

Dunleavy said Sound Avenue is not a "thick, commerical road that can bear these tractor trailers. This could break up our roads."

Nowhere in the town code, Hartill said, does it say such a use should be regulated by volume. 

"I'm not going to be in a situation that, all of a sudden, you end up with a large scale composting facility and Justin Purchasing says, 'Oh, shucks,'" Walter said. "It looks like he's trying to sneak in a professional composting facility."

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio suggested the town request a report from the Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation department.

Hartill said all the issues mentioned had been addressed by the ag advisory committee, which gave a favorable recommendation.

Walter said he had not seen a report from the ad advisory committee and added that a commercial composting facility could not be created without a site plan.

And Gabrielsen said he did not see how the wood would transform without nitrogen.

The supervisor asked that a letter be written to the Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation department, asking for a report.

"I share the Supervisor’s concerns," Dominique Mendez, president of the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition. "It is very hard to believe that the amount of wood they’re planning to dump here is truly to adjust that particular farm’s soil; it seems much more likely this is really a commercial composting operation under the guise of farming. Someone without a vested interest should evaluate the numbers and if there’s no way all that is for use on this property, then it should be stopped because it’s not farming, and it’s not protected. The numbers will tell the true story, whatever it is."