Army Corps Plan Behind the Times

It was doomed from the start. Anything with the word reformulation, even in 1960, must have been unlikely to inspire confidence, much less beat back the sea. But carry on the Army Corps of Engineers did — and for 53 years. Its effort to build erosion control and hurricane protection structures between Fire Island and Montauk Point was never going to work for a variety of reasons — reasons that should have been understood then, but most certainly are now.

That the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Study is old enough to sign up with AARP should be enough to compel Congress to revisit its suggestions for the Long Island shoreline. For one, climate change as the result of human activity was scarcely even a passing thought then; today, the United States military considers it among the greatest threats to global security. It is wrong that the Army Corps, which knows only how to build walls, and not such good ones at that, remains the country’s primary agency as far as the coast is concerned. 

Underscoring just how outdated the Fire Island to Montauk Point study is, its first environmental impact evaluation was begun in 1978 when Jimmy Carter was president. The study is finally said to be complete, and it was to be discussed at a meeting at the Montauk Playhouse last night. There was not going to be much to talk about, however, as the corps’s $1.2 billion proposal already appears set. Apparently, Congress isn’t watching.

In its final form, the study does little immediate harm but as long-term policy it is a disaster. It calls for placing sand on the downtown Montauk ocean beach every four years, as well as on the Wainscott and Sagaponack beaches. But what it would not do is far worse — and that is really the fault of Congress and the White House for failing to provide the right leadership.

What is needed today is a coastwide program of retreat. This would mean spending federal money not on sand and sandbags, as at Montauk, but in moving structures back from the beach. In their place, experts argue, natural-like protective dunes should be created. Because of its mindset, as well as that 1960 mandate from Congress, we know today that the Army Corps is incapable of a flexible approach to shoreline management that is in harmony with nature, rather than in opposition to it. 

If American taxpayers’ dollars are going to be spent along the coasts, it is only fair that they be allotted in the most sensible way possible. So far, we have seen only parsimonious measures that will only lead to the need for far greater expenditures later.