Montauk’s coastline is under threat from rising sea levels, erosion, and powerful storms, necessitating a collective effort to protect its ecological and economic resources. Recent severe winter weather, including heavy rain, flooding, and high winds, has wreaked havoc on Montauk's beautiful beaches as well as those across Long Island. The potential remediation options for these kinds of climate events have been well studied and outlined in East Hampton Town’s Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan (CARP). CCOM has played a leadership role in the formation of this plan and CCOM's outlined call to action, detailed on our website, emphasizes immediate steps such as flood protection code review, beach nourishment, coastal adaptation planning, and securing funding for and enhancing public education on coastal resiliency. A direct outcome of this work is the recent $600,000 NYS grant awarded to EHT for Sustainable Coastal Community Planning in Montauk beginning in 2024. This grant is a significant achievement, facilitated by CARP. Another is the US Army Corps of Engineer’s (USACE) downtown Montauk 30-year beach nourishment work starting this week.  Photos by Andy Harris

Beginning this week is the US Army Corps of Engineer’s Fire Island to Montauk Point project, which will bring 450,000 cubic yards of ocean-dredged sand to our downtown beaches and ensure their replenishment every 4 years for 30 years. We have been advocating for the USACE FIMP beach sand replenishment project since 2013, and CCOM extends its appreciation to East Hampton Town (EHT) for its unwavering commitment to ensuring the timely realization of this project for downtown Montauk. Please click here for more information on the project’s history, what we can expect and detailed maps.

In related news, Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Schumer, and Senator Gillibrand this week announced emergency federal action for Long Island coastal communities. This will ensure expedited evaluation of needed repairs on eastern Fire Island and reinforce Governor Hochul’s request for the repair of three other USACE coastal projects, including Downtown Montauk, in order to protect public safety and mitigate the severity of potential future storm damage.

Of urgent concern, however, is the damage at Ditch Plains. A set of six implementable actions for Ditch Plains have already been outlined in CARP (see pages 449-474), including sand replenishment. Without immediate sand replenishment, Ditch Plains faces further degradation that will impact its iconic status and economic role. As a result, we are calling on our local, county and state elected officials to take action now.

We continue to be in direct contact with local, county and state officials to help identify and provide immediate solutions to our coastal resiliency needs and expand on our work in bringing the community and its leaders together.