In an era of Edward Snowden leaks and increased retaliation against whistleblowers, a Long Island, N.Y., shell fisherman is fighting back against what he considers retribution for speaking out against environmental violations.

Harry J. Ellis, a 30-year resident on East Hampton’s Lake Montauk, called out an excavation company for illegal dredging in the lake in 2010, for which the company had to pay more than $100,000 in fines.

Since then, Ellis has been fighting back a town proposal to convert his driveway into a “mosquito pond,” according to Ellis’s lawyer, James S. Henry. Ellis is now pursuing a federal case against a former town official who he said is responsible.

In a petition filed in June, Ellis accused former town Supervisor William J. Wilkinson of retaliation after Ellis turned in one of Wilkinson’s campaign supporters and close personal friends, Keith Grimes, for illegal dredging on Lake Montauk.

Grimes Excavation Inc. was performing maintenance for Rick's Crabby Cowboy, a marina and restaurant on Lake Montauk, by dredging the lake.

Grimes, his wife and business associate Susan Grimes, and marina-owner Richard Gibbs were fined $130,000 in 2010 for violations related to the dredging.

That happened more than four years ago, and Grimes had to answer for more than 20 violations from the N.Y. Department of Environmental Conservation, according to the suit.

Three years earlier, in 2007, Ellis reported Grimes’ excavation company for using an area near Lake Montauk as a dump site without a permit from the state, for which Grimes received a cease and desist order, according to Ellis's lawsuit.

The day after the most recent violation notice was served, Ellis’s security camera picked up Wilkinson’s vehicle driving up to his property, the lawsuit read.

What followed was a plan headed by Wilkinson to build a storm-water retention pond on land Ellis uses as his driveway, which the town claimed to own, the lawsuit read.

“The storm water retention pond is a fallacy,” Ellis said in a recent phone interview. “It would flood my home – that was the plan of retaliation for my effectiveness as a whistleblower.”

He added that the retention pond, if built, would become a cesspool and a mosquito-breeding pond, as well.

When the plan was proposed, Ellis and 30 of his neighbors attended a meeting with Wilkinson and the town’s attorney to oppose the project. Their words fell on deaf ears, Ellis said.

Wilkinson’s attorney, Steven C. Stern of Sokoloff Stern LLP in Carle Place, N.Y., characterized the lawsuit as an attempt to influence the stalled state-level case.

“It is completely frivolous and we expect to prove that in court,” Stern said, adding that he planned to immediately file a motion to dismiss.

Current Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who is named in the suit, said he had no comment about the litigation.

Democrat Cantwell replaced Wilkinson, a Republican, after an election in 2013, but Ellis and his attorney claim that the town has needlessly continued to pursue the state-level court case against him.

Ellis’s attorney, James S. Henry, called the town’s claim on the land adjacent to Ellis’s property “dubious.” The town claims the land based on a 1941 highway dedication that the town had not done anything with in all of that time, according to Henry.

“We’ve been fighting that claim for four years successfully, and trying to get the town to basically back off the case of their claim of ownership,” Henry said in an interview.

During that time, the town has hired outside counsel to pursue the case while Ellis has had to pay his own legal fees out of pocket, Henry said, adding that he donates his own time, but that Ellis pays for work done by Henry’s legal associates.

It has cost him about $30,000 so far, Henry said. “They have no incentive to settle,” he said of the town.

At stake for Henry is the implication for whistleblowers who take on environmental destruction by business and other interests. He characterized Grimes as “politically connected,” and a serial violator.

Ellis said that as a longtime resident on the lake and as a commercial shell fisherman, he has an interest in keeping the lake clean. But over the years, pollution has ebbed away plant and animal life in the lake.

“I’m 53 now; 40 years ago I remember you wouldn’t be able to walk in the lake without stepping on scallops they were so abundant,” Ellis said. “All the eel grass is dead and gone, which was a habitat for the small scallops.”

A 30-year resident of Lake Montauk, Ellis has been the chairman of East Lake Association of Montauk and organized the group in 2003 to look out for the environmental interests of the lake, he said.

The group has recently dissolved, but Ellis said the group addressed numerous environmental issues in the area including building preservation.

“I think it is important to protect the environment and to be able to be a whistleblower and not have constitutional rights violated,” Ellis said.

The case has gotten personal for Ellis, who said both his parents died in the past four years. In part, he blames their deaths on the stress of the legal situation.

“An appropriate response is to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else and that nobody else would have to suffer as I and my family have suffered because of the acts of this individual,” Ellis said.

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