Posted on September 10, 2025
Sand is apparently a four-letter word in a dispute between the Town of Riverhead and a community of bayfront homeowners in Aquebogue.
The issue is dredging Case’s Creek, known locally as Dreamer’s Cove. Everyone agrees it should happen, but the question is — What happens to the sand?
The town says it’s too expensive to haul away, and the homeowners counter that they have no place to put it. They argue that without dredging, the estuary running north to the Main Road will become a mosquito breeding ground, ruining the environment and reducing property values.
The argument has been going on since 2016, the last time the creek was dredged. Local residents say that even at high tide, the creek’s mouth is less than t3 feet deep, not enough to navigate a boat into Flanders Bay. They believe that dredging will also help prevent flooding during a storm and deepen the water, helping fish breed.
In 2015, the homeowners split the $600,000 cost of rebuilding the bulkhead, with the understanding that the town of Riverhead would dredge every few years. “The town forced us to spend more than a half million to rebuild the bulkhead, with the promise that they would dredge the creek,” said Anthony Terraciano, one of several homeowners on the waterway. Standing on the bulkhead at the eastern side of his property, Mr. Terraciano said the 10-foot-wide channel’s mouth is about three-quarters filled with sand. “When it’s low, people can walk across it.”
The town agrees the work should be done. In an April 15, 2024, letter to the director of waterways for Suffolk County, Riverhead Town engineer Drew Dillingham said, “Dredging Case’s Creek is essential for navigational safety in this area. The danger to boaters if this creek is not properly dredged would be tremendous.”
But what to do with the sand?
“It would be a major ordeal to truck it somewhere else,” Mr. Dillingham said recently. “Logistically, every feasible option has been exhausted. There’s no municipality that would pay to come to pick it up.”
The county says it’s stuck, too.
“Over the last several years, Suffolk County Department of Public Works has worked diligently to identify a suitable disposable location for the dredge material from Dreamer’s Cove,” public works commissioner Charles Bartha said in a February letter to Riverhead Town Supervisor Timothy Hubbard. “At this time, there is no suitable disposable location identified for this project.”
Anthony Cravotta is president of the Ock-a-bock Homeowners Association, representing 11 homes on the private street south of Peconic Bay Boulevard.
“The town dredges all the nearby creeks east and west of here every two years, like Baywoods and Miamogue canal, but they don’t have an estuary there. It’s probably because the people there have boats,” said Mr. Cravotta.
Neighbors Dennis D’Alessandro and Ray Rieder said the Ock-a-bock Beach Association would take the sand, but that strip is too close to the canal, meaning the sand would just migrate back into the creek.
The homeowners in Simmons Point, just to the east, were approached several times about using the sand to replenish their beach, but each time, they declined, according to Mr. Dillingham. “We actually asked them three times in separate occasions,” he said, “They didn’t give us a reason. More time went … by, probably a year, and they said ‘No’ again.”
The upper part of the creek, north of Peconic Bay Boulevard, runs through 41 acres of town-owned wetlands, bordering the Golden Earthworm Organic Farm and the vineyards of Paumanok and Jamesport wineries. By the bay, there’s the Aqua Hotel, where a dock mostly sits on sand, even at high tide.
It’s estimated by the homeowners that the volume of sand to be dredged is worth $15-$50 per cubic yard, or approximately $100,00 to $250,000.
It’s unclear what happens next. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has issued a dredging permit, but said in an email, “It is up to the permit holder to decide whether or not they wish to complete a project. If they don’t complete it during the permit’s time frame, they may have to apply for a new DEC permit.”
“The town has yet to find a suitable location,” said a spokesman for Riverhead Town Legislator Catherine Stark. “Residents can speak to the town’s trustees. The town has been trying to find a place for the spoils.”
As the search goes on, Mr. Terraciano and his neighbors are increasingly frustrated. “Maybe I should put it on Facebook Marketplace,” he said.
