East Hampton Town Sets Its Sights on Climate Change
Acknowledging the effect of global climate change and rising sea levels, East Hampton Town is developing a coastal resiliency plan for the future of its more than 100 miles of coastline. The plan will recommend changes in policy, development strategies, zoning, and the like in the face of inevitable changes to the shoreline and adjacent areas.
Scientific studies released this week outlined the anticipated impacts of sea level rise. One study concluded that due to global warming, seas are rising faster than at any time in the last 28 centuries, with a sharp increase over the past century.
Coastal flooding is expected to increase, the study said, with the effects of even minor flooding felt in many communities, including saltwater intrusion into the water supply, clogged storm drains, and neighborhoods cut off by standing water. Those impacts are only the start of more damage to come, according to the research.
The East Hampton Natural Resources Department has been awarded a $250,000 state grant to develop a Coastal Erosion Assessment and Resiliency Plan, known as CARP. A project advisory committee has already been appointed. In addition to Kim Shaw, director of the department, and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc as ex officio members, and other town staff, the committee includes representatives of the East Hampton Town Trustees, the Peconic Estuary Program, the state’s Department of State, and the County Legislature. Other members are Rameshwar Das, a Springs resident who was a primary author of the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program plan, and Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, who chairs the group.
A baseline assessment of coastal conditions throughout East Hampton, being developed by consultants under another grant secured by the town, will provide data for the long-term resiliency planning effort. The shoreline inventory, by Dewberry, a consulting firm based in Virginia, will forecast sand erosion and accretion processes on different beaches, under a variety of conditions.
In its coastal resiliency plan, Mr. Samuelson said this week, the town is looking to develop a “planning solution — a future-looking plan that is about adapting to the changing world around us,” versus an “engineering solution.” A consultant will be hired to develop a draft plan in conjunction with the committee, town staff and officials, and the public.
A new request for proposals is being drafted after the responses by consultants to an initial call fell short of the mark. The consulting firms that responded to the initial call focused largely on “dealing with the onslaught of a big storm” or erecting protective structures, rather than identifying proactive measures, Mr. Samuelson and Ms. Shaw said Tuesday.
The consultant hired, Mr. Samuelson said, will “identify the areas of greatest concern, and make recommendations regarding infrastructure, policy, and funding that will change our behavior going forward.” The study’s goals will be more carefully described in the next call for proposals, he said, and more time will be provided for consulting firms to put together a considered response.
Ms. Shaw said Tuesday that what is needed is “out-of-the-box planning.”
“It’s got to be a long-term planning process,” addressing “what is happening to these hot spots in town,” she said. Referring to the ongoing Army Corps of Engineers work on Montauk’s downtown beach, she said, “We’re just thinking all short-term with this shore-hardening.”
Ms. Shaw said she and others have been reviewing the ways other coastal communities are adapting to sea level rise and coastal changes. “There’s a lot of creative stuff out there,” she said.