Funds now in place for Southold erosion study

It was hard to hear Suffolk Legis. Ed Romaine Wednesday afternoon, with the waves crashing loudly only a few feet from where he spoke to a crowd of residents on Hashamomuck Cove.

The water also washes up to within a few feet of some houses - in a storm it runs right under them - and each year the sand and rock gets lower and lower, exposing more of the pilings holding up the homes.

"On Sept. 10, the water was hitting my window," said Lynn Laskos, whose house is one of several threatened by the erosion that has gotten worse over the years.

"It's been a bad problem for decades. It's become critical in the last six or eight years," said Southold Supervisor Scott Russell.

Romaine had called the rally Wednesday to put pressure on New York State to pay its share of the cost of a feasibility study on ways to deal with the erosion problem.

Romaine, a Republican county legislator, praised Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy for committing their share of the needed funds for the $4.5 million study. The federal government pays half, while the county pays 35 percent, which includes its share and the share that Southold Town would otherwise have to pay.

But while Romaine told the crowd he was ready to attack the state, he said he had just been notified by state Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Director Peter Scully that the state share of the needed funds was available, and that the DEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were already working together to develop a storm damage reduction project for Hashamomuck Cove.

While only a handful of houses are in immediate danger, Russell said about 30 homes have been affected by the Hashamomuck erosion. And, he worries that erosion could undermine the road, one of only two major east-west roads in his town.

Romaine predicted that the study would take six months to nine months, and said that it would lead to a long-range plan to deal with the problem. He urged that sand be pumped to the thinnest part of the remaining beach, and some sort of temporary stabilizing structure be built until the long-range study is completed.