It’s a tussle to say the least.

At his Chautauqua Lake residence, Wray has a vertical breakwall, and the DEC wants something different – a slanted riprap stonewall – which it said will help with erosion.

And the DEC said he has to tear down his current breakwall, and then resubmit an application to the DEC for a new one.

The DEC said the vertical breakwall, at 271 E. Terrace Ave., is in violation of Article 15 Part 608 which focuses on the use and protection of waters, encompassing regulations for disturbances to protected streams, dams docks, moorings, and excavation/fill in navigable waters.

The New York State DEC said the vertical breakwall, at 271 E. Terrace Ave., Lakewood, is in violation of Article 15 Part 608. Kenneth Wray Jr. of 271 E. Terrace Ave., Lakewood is going to appeal the ruling. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

The DEC fined Wray $2,500 for not having the proper permit.

Wray said he did have the correct permit.

In a letter dated Feb. 21, 2025, the DEC said that on April 12, 2022, it conducted a site inspection at his property and claimed he deposited fill and installed a vertical breakwall below the mean high water elevation within the lake.

On June 7, 2002, the letter said, the DEC issued violation notice for the April 12, 2022 inspection.

A second notice of violation regarding the April 12, 2022 was issued by the DEC on April 12, 2023, the letter said.

Wray said at a March 24 Lakewood Village Board meeting, that a local lake organization helped obtain a permit for his breakwall. Wray also noted that in the town of Busti, the Vukote Canal near Vukote Road, and Lakeside Drive has vertical break walls, and so does the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel, in Celoron.

“That’s going to be an interesting thing to watch, and see what the DEC requires,” Village Trustee Ellen Barnes said at the March 24 meeting.

Wray constructed a breakwall because he said he received a permit from Army Corps of Engineers, but DEC officials said that the Army permit was not valid because it wasn’t issued by the DEC.

Wray said the DEC is telling him that he needs to take the breakwall down at his own cost.

Wray, who has a prosthetic leg, said “They (DEC officials) want me to take it (down) all by hand, and then resubmit an application,”

Wray, 72, is choosing to appeal the DEC’s ruling, and said the DEC is using him as an example. He said it may be a difficult process because of the new Freshwater Wetland Regulations that went into effect in January,

“This has been going on for four years,” Wray said. “They (DEC officials) could have said ‘Let’s solve this one way or another. Let’s come up with a solution that we can both live with.’ But no they said ‘pull it all out (and) do it all by hand.’ I’m 72 years old. That’s not going to happen.”

But Wray said he is appealing the ruling because he doesn’t want other lake property owners to be caught in the same DEC situation.

At its March 26 meeting, The Chautauqua County Legislature passed a resolution urging the DEC to pause implementation of and reverse the regulations.

The resolution notes that the DEC has adopted significant amendments to the Freshwater Wetlands Regulations, which expands state jurisdiction over wetlands, reduces the acreage threshold for regulation, and creates new classifications such as “Wetlands of Unusual Importance.”

In 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law revisions to New York’s Freshwater Wetlands Act. New York’s original Freshwater Wetlands Act was enacted in 1975 to regulate activities near larger wetlands, greater than 12.4 acres, and smaller wetlands considered to be of unusual local importance. The new wetlands law eliminates the use of the old, inaccurate wetland maps and clarifies that all wetland areas greater than 12.4 acres are subject to Article 24 regulations. Freshwater wetlands are lands and submerged lands – commonly called marshes, swamps, sloughs, bogs, and flats – that support aquatic or semi-aquatic vegetation.

The county resolution argues these changes could “impose significant permitting challenges for municipalities managing critical infrastructure projects, such as water and sewer systems, and exacerbate already strained municipal budgets due to increased compliance costs and project delays.”