Renewed Opposition to Army Corps Plan

A Suffolk County legislator, Al Krupski, whose district includes the North Fork, is voicing his renewed opposition to the Army Corps of Engineers project in Montauk, where a reinforced sand dune is to be built along the downtown beach.

The project has been authorized as an emergency measure until the Army Corps undertakes a more comprehensive beach reconstruction effort from Fire Island to Montauk Point, and would be paid for by the federal agency.

As local sponsors, however, East Hampton Town and the county have agreed to shoulder maintenance costs, which have been estimated at an average of $150,000 a year. If storms wash away the sand to be placed atop a row of geotextile sandbags the county and town would be responsible for having it replaced.

Critics, who include the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, have questioned the maintenance cost estimate and the reinforced sand dune approach.

The structure, they say, will lose its topping of sand and then, when hit by waves, will have the effect of any hard structure on the beach, exacerbating erosion. The use of hard structures on the ocean beach has been decried by leading coastal experts, and is prohibited under East Hampton Town’s coastal policy.

In a Dec. 29 letter to the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, Legislator Krupski reiterated that concern and said that the county “should not endorse a project that hardens the shoreline.” The project, he said, “is sure to fail and cause accelerated erosion to adjacent properties,” and “put the maintenance on the shoulders of the taxpayers of the entire county.” He called on the department to “request specifics” from the Army Corps regarding the project.

Mr. Krupski pointed out that the Montauk shoreline had been damaged in a December storm. Had the dune been in place, it would have resulted in damages that “would have cost the town and county millions of dollars to repair,” he said.

The storm caused the Army Corps to take a second look at its plans for the reinforced dune, and to revise them to almost double the amount of sand that would be needed to build the dune to its original specifications, which will add to the original estimated project cost of $8.9 million.

The December storm was “just anortheaster” and not a major storm, Mr. Krupski said by phone this week. “That sort of storm is predictable,” he said. “You’re dealing with Mother Nature,” he said. “When you deal with Mother Nature, you don’t have any certainties. This could last five years; this could last five weeks.”

“In light of the impact,” he said, he “thought it best that the county should take another look at it.” He said he would wait for a report from the Department of Public Works before possibly taking further action.

“Shoreline hardening is the wrong solution,” Mr. Krupski said in his letter.

Instead, elevating shoreline buildings, or retreating from the shore altogether, is a viable option that should be discussed, he said this week.

Mr. Krupski had argued against the county entering an inter-municipal agreement to share maintenance costs for the reinforced dune with the town. He was outvoted by the Legislature, which was lobbied for its support by County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who represents East Hampton and the rest of the Second Legislative District on the East End.

“I don’t think he understands the severity of the situation, and the interim nature of the project,” said Mr. Schneiderman, who early this week was reinstated as the Legislature’s deputy presiding officer.

“Missing from this conversation,” he said, is that “these sandbags are emergency structures.”

The long-range, comprehensive shoreline plan, which the Army Corps has said is to begin in about three years, calls for an extension of the beach in downtown Montauk to a width that would be expected to sustain years of erosion and storms.

When that happens, Mr. Schneiderman said, the reinforced dune should be removed. “Without a significant beach in front of it,” he said of the reinforced dune, “there are going to be problems.”

“I am concerned,” he said. “I don’t want to see this structure taking the impact of the waves.”

While some have cast doubt on whether the Army Corps will indeed complete the larger beach restoration project within a reasonable period of time — the Fire Island to Montauk Point project has been under discussion for five decades — Mr. Schneiderman said he is confident in the federal agency’s projections that more permanent work in Montauk will take place relatively soon.

If not, he said, “we need another plan.” Without the beach reconstruction, the long-term costs of keeping the sandbags covered with sand “will be too much,” he said. “I do think that after three years, if the larger beach isn’t placed in front of it, we’re going to have to rethink the whole thing.”

“This isn’t the final thing; it’s just buying us time,” Mr. Schneiderman said. He believes the $150,000 average annual maintenance cost that has been estimated is a realistic projection, “as long as the project is designed right.”