Two More Arrested in Montauk Protests

Two more protestors were arrested on Thursday morning in Montauk as the ocean waves lapped at the edges of an excavated hole in the sand lined with steel beams, hoses, and other equipment used by contractors building a sandbag seawall for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Contractors, who began excavating last week, are becoming increasingly agitated by the disruptions. On Thursday, even as Thomas Muse and Tracy Stoloff, the latest in a string of project opponents who have been showing up at the work site almost daily since late last week, stood on the beach in the center of the work zone, they continued using heavy machinery to dig into the sand nearby.

Shortly after, Mr. Muse and Ms. Stoloff became the 9th and 10th opponents of the project to be charged with disorderly conduct as they made their opinions known through civil disobedience.

The work under way this month will result in a 3,100-foot, 15-foot-tall wall of sandbags stretching across the Montauk downtown shore.

Members of a growing group of people who want to see the seawall stopped have vowed to continue the protests in the work zone. Hundreds gathered on the shore for a rally on Sunday and attended an East Hampton Town Board work session on Tuesday to call for a halt to the project.

A judge's decision on a request for a temporary injunction to stop the work is pending, following a deadline tomorrow for a submission to the court by the Army Corps. The order was requested in a lawsuit against the seawall filed last spring by the organization Defend H2O and several individuals, including Mr. Muse.