More of the Same At Dirtbag Beach
Despite what Senator Jeff Flake from that great oceanfront state of Arizona said, the Montauk sandbag sea wall did what it was supposed to do this week as a northeaster pounded the beach. Senator Flake, you might recall, included the $9 million United States Army Corps of Engineers project among his annual list of wasteful government spending.
Though others differ, for the owners of the several downtown motels, private residences, and condominium complexes the sea wall was taxpayers’ money well spent. However, in the long run, the sea wall was a mistake. Senator Flake called it a boondoggle, and he was right.
Following Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in 2012, the area was left exposed and the buildings at risk of falling into the breach. The Army Corps’s work to save them was completed last year. Mr. Flake is correct that the money Congress appropriated after Sandy for erosion-related projects in the Northeast could have been far better spent. By building a sea wall in Montauk, the corps only delayed a lasting solution and left Town of East Hampton and Suffolk residents on the hook for untold millions to maintain a layer of sand on something that should not have been built in the first place.
Previous town boards had worked for years to draft a coherent erosion policy, with Albany’s approval, but that was sidestepped without explanation by every agency that had a hand in the project. This should not suggest that officials were corrupt, but rather that the challenges of managing the developed coastline are beyond current government regulatory abilities.
This week’s storm underscored a fact that was clear after Irene and Sandy: Downtown Montauk’s beachfront row of structures is doomed without costly and ongoing sand replenishment. However, since the Army Corps has said it would not take on such efforts in the coming decades, it will be the town’s responsibility.
Already, local officials are getting spooked about their risky financial exposure, trying to convince the Army Corps that the project is not technically completed and, therefore, that it is still federal responsibility to pay for new sand in the aftermath of this week’s storm. That is a nice try, but hardly the stuff of long-term strategy.
Unlike in Sagaponack and Water Mill, where millionaire and billionaire homeowners pooled resources to fund their own private effort, downtown Montauk’s businesses simply do not have the means to go it alone. Moreover, taxpayers in Montauk or the town as a whole should not be expected to pay to continue the folly.
The officials who wrote the town’s erosion law knew this decades ago. They understood that the only option in the worst-hit areas was for the motels and houses to be shifted landward, away from the danger zone, or removed entirely. By allowing the Montauk sea wall to be built in contravention of the law, today’s town officials delayed a sensible solution that would have cost taxpayers far less in the long run than ongoing sand replenishment. We have to wonder what it will take to convince them to change course.
Senator Flake apparently found the name Dirtbag Beach, as some local commentators called the Montauk effort, amusing. In his remarks, he said such federal spending should have gone to national priorities such as infrastructure and health research. It is hard to argue with that. But it is also hard not to see the need for a federal role in coastal management — as long as the Army Corps is not in charge.