Funding extended to study South Shore flood control measures

A U.S. Senate committee has approved more funding for an Army Corps of Engineers study of flood protection measures for the back bays on Long Island’s South Shore.

Sen. Chuck Schumer last week (D-N.Y.) announced that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had extended funding of a three-year $3 million study on how to protect communities along Reynolds Channel, Hewlett Bays and East Rockaway after superstorm Sandy.

Schumer appeared last year in Island Park to request more dollars for the Nassau County Back Bays study after the Army Corps had already exhausted funding to examine flood control proposals including bulkheads, street drainage and tidal gates suggested between the Rockaways and Point Lookout.

Additional funding for the project was included in the 2020 Water Resources Development Act, which includes a waiver of a rule by the Army Corps that says a study should not cost more than $3 million over three years. The waiver allows the Army Corps unlimited time to conduct the study, utilizing millions in Sandy disaster funds already allocated. 

“The rightful extension and funding of the Nassau County Back Bays Study is critical to saving lives and preventing future financial devastation to Nassau County’s South Shore with the threat of major storms and hurricanes ever present,” Schumer said.

Schumer said the project must study 30 miles of coastline and vulnerable homes along the South Shore to protect from future storms. The study also examines Long Island’s southern shoreline in Nassau and in parts of Queens and Suffolk County to determine the feasibility of a larger project to reduce the risk of coastal storm damage.

Army Corps officials from the Philadelphia sector, who are conducting the study, requested an extension last year, citing the size and complexity of the project.

Schumer said the study includes Hewlett, Middle, Jones and South Oyster bays, as well as associated creeks and channels — all identified as high-risk regions that needed an in-depth study.

The study began in the fall of 2016 to examine how to reduce storm surges, flooding, coastal erosion and wind that ravaged coastal communities during superstorm Sandy nearly eight years ago. Sandy flooded the barrier of island including Long Beach from both storefronts when the ocean met the bay.

Communities such as Freeport and Island Park have been working to also prevent everyday flooding from storm surges in the canals and streets with tidal valves and additional bulkheading.

The Army Corps completed a separate $130 million shoreline protection project on the Atlantic Ocean from Long Beach to Point Lookout that erected 18 rocky jetties and replenished 150 feet of shoreline to the beach.

"It was incredibly shortsighted to delay or not move forward with this study. The future of our sustainability is dependent to having a plan for flooding, rising sea levels and severe weather,” said State Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach). “This study is the beginning of a long process to outline what makes our area more resilient and allow us to live here on the South Shore for the next century.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.