Officials Must Act on What We Now Know

Truer words about global warming and sea level rise have rarely, if ever, been uttered in connection with what East Hampton Town government is facing: “Literally, the shape of our town is going to change. We’re better off having a plan.” The speaker was Jeremy Samuelson, who is leading a new effort to come to grips with what lies ahead. 

What lies ahead looks bad. According to New York State’s most conservative estimate, the bays and oceans will rise by 1.3 feet by 2050. This is enough for Napeague Harbor to expand to Route 27, for example, potentially cutting off Montauk and leading to significant questions about how to replace inundated infrastructure. What will remain of high land along Gerard Drive at Accabonac Harbor would be a pair of islands. Erosion nearly everywhere along the beaches will only further exacerbate the tension between protecting private properties with bulkheads and the inevitable loss of public beaches that would result.

So far, the coastal policies of governments the length of Long Island have been inadequate. Though a number, East Hampton Town included, enacted so-called local waterfront revitalization plans, they were drafted years before much was known about human-caused climate change. Making matters worse, when it came to using applicable state laws to enforce the towns’ and villages’ waterfront plans, Albany largely failed to do so.

What will set East Hampton Town’s pending “coastal assessment resiliency plan” apart remains to be seen. Certainly, the need to begin thinking differently about both new development and existing houses and businesses already in harm’s way is evident. Those involved in the town’s new effort warn that more attention will need to be given to bay and harbor areas, many of which are at far lower elevation than sites along the ocean. In all, it is an alarming picture.

Given what is known now about its exposure, East Hampton Town should be at the forefront of progressive thinking about how to deal with the changes sea level rise will bring. We hope the resiliency plan now being considered is the first step in a new direction