After erosion, E. Hampton eyes code changes
This Montauk house is in danger of falling into the Block Island Sound after a blizzard last month stirred up pounding waves. Credit: Gordon M. Grant
After listening to waterfront residents' erosion woes in the wake of last week's blizzard, East Hampton town officials said Tuesday they may amend their prohibition on use of boulders or other "shore-hardening" measures to protect beaches and buildings.
The standing-room-only town board meeting was held a day before federal and state emergency management officials arrive in Suffolk for two days of reviewing damage reports and visiting eroded areas to determine if East Hampton and the rest of the county qualifies for disaster assistance.
When the two-hour special meeting on erosion ended, Councilman Dominick Stanzione said he expected the board would meet within a week to discuss changes to the code. The code now allows property owners only to dump sand, maintain existing bulkheads or, if they obtain an emergency permit, place rocks on the beach.
Stanzione also said the town, which experienced the worst erosion on Long Island in the blizzard, will look at creating a sand stockpile. "The town has to get in the business of banking it for an emergency," he said.
Another plan being considered is creation of special erosion control districts where residents of Montauk, Amagansett, Napeague and Lazy Point, which is on the western end of Napeague Harbor, could be taxed to pay for erosion control measures.
Officials said fiscally strapped East Hampton will have to consider borrowing millions of dollars to deal with the erosion problem.
Those at the meeting agreed that erosion is getting worse on both the ocean and Block Island Sound beaches.
Suffolk Legis. Jay Schneiderman, a former town supervisor and lifelong Montauk resident, told the board he has never seen erosion this bad. He said some of Montauk's oceanfront motels might have collapsed into the surf if the blizzard had lasted a few more hours.
"In downtown Montauk, we have no beach to absorb the energy of the water," Schneiderman said, arguing for allowing hard structures. "I believe people have the right to protect their property."
But not all coastal experts and environmentalists agree with using hard structures to stop erosion in the long term.
Robert Deluca, president of the Group for the East End, an environmental group, who was not at the meeting, said, "We don't favor hardening a shoreline." The best longer-term solution is usually replenishment of sand, he said, because with bulkheads or boulders, "there's plenty of evidence that it makes things worse by creating erosion elsewhere in almost every case."
Jay Tanski of the New York State Sea Grant Extension Program, said "in certain cases it makes sense" to place steel bulkheads or boulders to reinforce a beach if structures are endangered. But he added that they should only be allowed with study of how to mitigate their negative impacts.
