Engineers Consider Massive Armoring Plan

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is reconsidering a 1962 plan that called for the construction of 50 stone jetties, or groins, and massive sand replenishing along Long Island's ocean shore from Montauk Point to Fire Island.

The project also calls for the construction of "interior drainage structures" at Mecox, Sagaponack, and Georgica Ponds.

Officials of the Army Corps met last week in Ronkonkoma for what was reported to be a "scoping" session to discuss the plan, which undoubtedly would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with other government officials and representatives of academic institutions. There was no public notification of the session.

Focus On Storm Damage

Stuart Piken, planning director for the Army Corps district office in Manhattan, said the press was not "normally" invited to such meetings as occurred last week. He said the intent of the session was to solicit views, and said a public hearing would be held in January.

A draft report drawn up last month stated that the overall purpose of the renewed effort was to reduce storm damage along the coast.

Summarizing the report, Mr. Piken said, "We are doing a study which covers . . . 83 miles, and looks at what type of shoreline protection is best suited for that area. It's a very comprehensive study looking at storm patterns, the structures that are now in place, the plans in place, and a long-term solution."

Erosion Control

The draft report recalls that the 1962 plan, which was Federally authorized, had "provided for storm protection and storm-induced erosion control," involving "widening the beaches along the developed areas to a minimum width of 100 feet and to an elevation of 14 feet above mean sea level, and raising dunes to an elevation of 20 feet above mean sea level."

The project authorized construction of up to 50 groins, depending on "actual need."

The 1962 plan was controversial, as was a plan put forward at the time by Robert Moses for a roadway along the Fire Island dunes. The Fire Island National Seashore eventually was established to stop the highway's construction.

Parts of the Army Corps plan, however, went forward. Two groins were completed at Georgica Pond in East Hampton in 1965. Eleven others were put in along Dune Road in Westhampton Beach and, in 1969, four more groins went in there.

Pond Drains

On the South Fork, the construction of interior drainage controls in the two ponds in Southampton Town and in Georgica Pond aroused a storm of controversy.

Beginning in 1964, just as the Army Corps was preparing to create the two jetties at Georgica, East Hampton Town Trustees accepted the Army plan to stabilize the level of the pond using a drainpipe. The pipe was meant to obviate the need for periodic dredged openings of the gut.

The stabilization never happened. The idea had been opposed in the past and would be opposed again in the future. Baymen objected vehemently, saying such a pipe would mean the end of a valuable fishery. The Georgica Association challenged it in court, and won.

Resistance To Jetties

A pipe installed at Hook Pond long ago is blamed for that pond's protracted state of stagnation. Mecox Bay, Sagg Pond, and Georgica all avoided the Army's stabilization plans and continue to provide commercial and recreational fisheries.

In part because the cost was being shared by Federal, state, and county taxpayers, resistance to the Army's grand jetty project grew. Then-Suffolk Executive John V.N. Klein and others, who believed the ocean shoreline should not be bolstered with manmade devices but allowed to shift with nature, blocked the continuation of the Army's plan.

The failure of the original, unfinished plan became most evident in December of 1993 when a violent northeast storm caused a breach at the west end of Dune Road in Westhampton Beach. Over 100 houses were undermined and destroyed. The following March, the Army Corps spent $12 million to close the breach.

Westhampton Dunes

Residents charged that the failure to finish a groin field to the east - only 16 of 21 proposed groins were installed - was responsible for severe beach scouring. Slow erosion resulted, and finally the breach.

Property owners had sued for $200 million in 1984, charging that the unfinished field endangered their properties.

Controversy over the destroyed community led to the formation of the Village of Westhampton Dunes, which became eligible for other Federal assistance once incorporated.

Residents dropped their suit after the Corps closed the breaches, settling for a $132 million beach restoration project. Up to 140 houses were permitted to be rebuilt within the state's coastal erosion hazard area as a result.

Critics of the project say it is a case of throwing good money after bad. Proponents say the restoration will help the ecology of Moriches Bay.

Alternatives

The "alternatives" being considered now run from "no action" to "removal or modification of existing structures." They include "beach restoration," or sand-dumping; "sand-bypassing inlet management," construction of "groins alone," and construction of "groins with beach restoration."

The Army Corps draft report discussed last week echoes some of the arguments made in recent years by Dune Road and Fire Island beach-house owners seeking to protect their residences.

If "no action" is taken, it says, "erosion will continue and the loss of beaches will be a greater threat. If available beach area is greatly diminished due to continued erosion and storm-induced breaches and washovers, both the state and county will sustain economic loss."

"Revenues will be lost due to a lack of recreational area created by the disappearance of beaches. Populations may also temporarily shift inland, due to loss of residences and beachfront property being damaged or destroyed."

"Renourishment"

Under the "beach renourishment" alternative, "the available beach area will increase, therefore increasing the area available for development. The number of residences in beachfront communities may increase, thereby increasing the population. However, this increase in population should not create a demand for additional community services, e.g., schools, fire, and police services."

"By utilizing hard stabilization structures" and "replenishing the beaches, or a combination of both, damage due to wave inundation . . . will be lessened, thereby reducing economic loss to homeowners. However, the addition of groins and seawalls will limit access to beach areas and may result in a decrease in the number of visitors to recreational areas."

Mr. Klein, the former Suffolk Executive, held that building groins along the shore was "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Sand that would normally move with ocean currents along the shore would instead accumulate in spots near the jetties, he said, and the coastline further along would be damaged.

The jetties built by the Army Corps at Georgica Beach have long been blamed for erosion to its west. Michael and Eleanore Kennedy's house in Wainscott, the first one west of those jetties, suffered severely over the years. The Kennedys proposed various remedies to East Hampton Town before building a 150-foot rock revetment in 1993.

The town fought the revetment in court for several years, until the spring of 1995, when the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court upheld a lower ruling allowing the revetment to remain.

Mecox Bulkheads

On Dune Road in Bridgehampton, nearly a dozen property owners have been battling with Southampton Town for permission to erect a series of steel bulkheads and one large rock revetment. The applications remain mired in legal proceedings.

The properties where the bulkheads are proposed are just updrift of Mecox Bay, and Southampton Town Trustees have voiced strong concern that they would have a negative impact on the bay.

The pertinent section of the Army Corps report states that if hard structures are used, "beachfront properties will be provided with more protection. However, the addition of these structures may facilitate the erosion of the shoreline in downdrift areas."

The draft report also examines what the Army Corps considers the impacts of the various alternatives on vegetation, mammals, birds, fish, wetlands, and people.

With Reporting By Russell Drumm and Michelle Napoli