Text size:

Fighting Mother Nature

Tidal movements and storms have a way of eating at our coastline, and a new study will highlight lots of tough decisions ahead

June 22, 2008

The haunting televised images of flooding in the Midwest remind us once again that it's not wise to mess with Mother Nature. That lesson will be preoccupying us on Long Island in the months ahead, as we grapple with the question of how best to preserve the shoreline that brings us so much beauty and helps give us economic life.

In the Midwest, as a story in Newsday pointed out on Friday, some farming and development practices have made the flooding worse, by reducing the soil's ability to absorb rain.

On Long Island, messing with Mother Nature means building too close to the shore, where normal tidal movements and the occasional big storm want to make houses disappear. It means development patterns that eat the wetlands that help protect us from storms. It means poking giant fingers of stone into the ocean to protect the beach in one area, even though they interfere with the natural drift of sand and starve beaches further to the west.

Those issues have swirled around the periphery of our consciousness for decades. Now, they're about to come into much sharper focus, thanks to the Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point Reformulation Study, nearing completion after four decades of ups and downs.

In recent years, the funding to finish the study often hasn't made it into the president's budget. So the process has needed frequent prodding from Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), and our two Democratic senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer.

Now, the study is reaching the end-game - finally. A draft is expected this summer, to be followed by a year or so of review and evaluation, before its recommendations can begin to be implemented. The study has cost roughly $25 million, and implementation will cost hundreds of millions more.

A project of this scope demands congressional-level leadership. To Bishop's credit, since most of the 83 miles of shoreline covered by the study are in his district, he has taken a lead role. He's trying to brief stakeholders on what's happening and prepare them for what's ahead. This role has its political perils. Some potential recommendations, such as the acquisition and relocation of existing buildings, have the potential to ignite major political firestorms, as competing interests collide.

The key federal players are the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior. At the state level, it's the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of State. And there's a long list of local governments and private groups, such as The Nature Conservancy and the Fire Island Association.

The people of East Hampton worry about what erosion will do to downtown Montauk. County Executive Steve Levy wants beach replenishment for the shoreline, which is so crucial to tourism and our economy. The Fire Island Association is also pushing for restoration of beaches and dunes.

But taxpayers can't afford to keep replenishing forever. So the plan may recommend that, after a decade or so, we phase out replenishment and let Mother Nature do as she will. That will require some land-use and policy decisions that politicians won't like facing. Starting now, all of us must pay close attention to how this study plays out. It's way too important to our future to ignore.