Corps Calls for Comments on Plan
The public comment period on the Army Corps of Engineers’ Fire Island to Montauk Point shoreline proposals, a $1.1 billion project that has been more than half a century in the planning, extends through Sept. 29, with a hearing scheduled at the Montauk Firehouse on its penultimate day, Sept. 28.
Comments may also be submitted by email to the project biologist, at [email protected], or the project manager, at [email protected], or by mail to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, Planning Division-Environmental Branch (Attn. Robert Smith), 26 Federal Plaza, New York 10278.
The proposal for the downtown Montauk shoreline falls short of the substantial beach restoration that local officials and others had thought would be included. During discussion of the Corps’ recently completed installation of a 3,100-foot-long sandbag wall along the downtown beach, that project was described as a temporary solution to protect shorefront buildings until full beach restoration, under the so-called FIMP plan, could be completed. Then, the sandbags, which are covered with three feet of sand, would be removed, or so it was believed.
But that plan, as recently revealed, calls only for adding 120,000 cubic yards of sand in front of the wall approximately every four years to offset erosion.
Other projects that would be undertaken include dredging of the Fire Island, Moriches, and Shinnecock Inlets, and the elevation of 4,400 houses and businesses in flood-prone areas.
In a recent press release, Representative Lee Zeldin urged members of the public to weigh in on the plan at the hearings, and called on the Army Corps to extend the comment period by two weeks so that South Fork residents who attend hearings on the last days of the scheduled period would have an opportunity to voice their opinions afterward. He added that he would “strongly ask” that the Army Corps consider “the priorities of the elected officials and residents of Long Island’s South Shore.”
East Hampton Town officials have been lobbying the Corps to revise and expand its downtown Montauk work plan.
Also in the release, Paul Monte, president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, weighed in. “While the [Army Corps of Engineers] has taken interim steps to protect our downtown beach, they must include a much larger beach fill project in the FIMP plan to ensure the long-term preservation and protection of our beach and our downtown. The small maintenance project proposed for Montauk in the current FIMP draft is a mere drop in the bucket and falls far short of what’s needed to effectively rebuild our beach for the long term,” he said.
A final report and environmental impact study on the entire FIMP project is to be prepared in October and submitted to the chief of the Army Corps for approval at the end of December. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2018.