In Brookhaven, we're taking a harder look at shoreline living

The issue of erosion facing Long Island is not new, but approaches to fighting it have varied greatly over the decades. Dunes constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect Fire Island, and the entire South Shore of Brookhaven Town, have been devastated by repeated storms. While no individual storm was severe enough to open federal government resources, the repetitive storms have erased in a few years $291 million worth of sand from the Fire Island to Montauk Inlet project.

Worsening storm seasons must force a hard look at this reactionary approach as fiscally unsustainable, with costs at times in the tens of millions.

In Brookhaven, residents on both shores are dealing with the stronger winds, heavier rains, and larger storm surges of a changing climate. What was once dubbed a “one-in-100-years storm” often occurs now multiple times per year.

All levels of government are reevaluating approaches to shoreline living. Many are making difficult yet necessary decisions on what assets we can protect, and which are better off abandoned. In recognizing these hard truths, Brookhaven has taken a mixed approach to shoreline maintenance that could serve as a lesson for a regionwide approach.

From our bays to the Sound, Brookhaven is rethinking and reconstructing typical hardscaped road endings with new drainage infrastructure, bioretention areas, porous concrete walks, and concrete valley gutters to allow for quick dissipation of storm surge once the tides recede.

In Patchogue, we have acquired waterfront properties and are constructing a “living shoreline” that will remove damaged bulkheading, pilings and outfall pipes, and stabilize the coast with natural material such as armoring stone and vegetation. In low-lying areas like the Mastic Peninsula and Shirley, the town has executed “managed retreat” by purchasing more than 300 parcels, offering fair market value, to physically remove residents and structures most susceptible to damage and flooding from storm events.

Brookhaven has abandoned roadways that sit at sea level and are primarily underwater during high tide. We are giving these areas back to nature and allowing the marshland that remains to serve as a tidal surge buffer. While these approaches to shoreline protection vary, Brookhaven has recognized that immediate action is needed to save what we can, while we can.

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s call for the Army Corps to change its minimum requirements for assistance from a “per storm” evaluation to an “aggregate of storms” approach is a welcome step toward unlocking much-needed federal government financial assistance, as it did last week for Fire Island. While this may buy time and provide some relief, a more comprehensive and permanent solution is needed because the costs of this haphazard approach will continue to skyrocket unsustainably.

I am also encouraged by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement of a $250 million “Blue Buffers Voluntary Buyout Program” in her 2024-2025 state budget proposal. This is another opportunity for New York to continue the property acquisition work started with NY Rising. While the program is short on details regarding which parcels will be eligible for acquisition and at what price, I have asked our environmental staff to develop maps using the federal government's “sea level rise viewer” which shows what inundation looks like at certain one-foot intervals, allowing us to chart the most at-risk properties to determine likely candidates for buyouts.

Brookhaven Town is facing the risks of climate change head-on with the limited funding associated with a local government. The state and federal governments must join us and fund a regionwide program to ensure our coastlines continue to exist, albeit in a climate-changed way.