The annual sand replenishment at the ocean beach in downtown Montauk is complete, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc told his colleagues on the town board on Tuesday.
The project called for 17,000 cubic yards of sand to be deposited on the downtown beach at a cost of $767,000, which is shared with Suffolk County. The town and county are responsible for the annual project prior to the summer season, the town having agreed, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in 2012, to what was seen as an interim step prior to implementation of the federal government's Fire Island to Montauk Point reformulation project.
That project was to begin in Montauk this fall. The Army Corps of Engineers, however, delayed the easternmost portion of the project to 2023. The surprise decision came after repeated assurances from the Corps that Montauk would be the first to be addressed to provide hurricane protection and erosion control along five reaches of the South Shore of Long Island, spanning approximately 83 miles.
In Montauk, the Army Corps plan calls for spreading 450,000 cubic yards of ocean-dredged sand across 6,000 feet of downtown ocean beach, where motels and resorts lining the dune are vulnerable to extreme weather and sea level rise.
"We have been pushing to get this timeline moved up," Mr. Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday, describing the project as itself an interim step that "will give us, hopefully, as much time as we need to make those other long-term arrangements in terms of adapting to a changing coastline," through changes to the zoning code and a transfer of development rights scheme that would facilitate a voluntary retreat from the shoreline as recommended in Montauk's hamlet study.
"It's important that we move to the next phase as soon as possible," Mr. Van Scoyoc said.
