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No, you’re not dreaming!
Yesterday, an armada of cranes and trucks descended upon the Pines with sand and began work to reinforce our dunes in the most severely damaged areas. It has been a long road to this moment, with what often seemed like a never-ending stream of obstacles. But these pictures taken yesterday by Andrew Kirtzman show that our efforts to shore up our beach for immediate protection, in anticipation of the larger Army Corps of Engineers project, have succeeded.
Here is what’s happening as I write this:
Suffolk County’s plan for the western half of the Pines beach is to install trap bags, each filled with about 2.2 cubic yards of sand, in a “hat” formation, in which two bags are placed next to one another and a third is placed on top of them. This formation began at Susan Walk yesterday and will continue eastward to Harbor Walk.
From Harbor Walk to the eastern end of the Pines, sand will be placed in the areas in which a dune exists but has been compromised severely. Initially, the county’s engineers planned to place additional trap bags in a side-by-side formation. However, FIPPOA retained our own engineers, who have previously worked on both our beach and other Fire Island beaches, and they strongly recommended that sand be placed there without using trap bags. They believed that trap bags would have a negative impact on the health of the dune, whereas sand placement without bags would improve their defenses. The county accepted their recommendation.
We expect the eastern end to receive sand from Harbor to Ozone, with select areas skipped over based upon the health of the existing dunes. From Ozone to Sail, no placement will occur because the current conditions don’t necessitate additional sand.
While the county’s project (funded largely by the state) is intended to cover all the eastern end of Fire Island, the Pines is getting the largest amount of sand because our beaches have been the most damaged. In fact, some communities will receive no sand at all.
This highlights the fact that this stopgap project is a short-term, defensive measure to guard against another serious storm. It is not a full replacement of the original FIMI footprint completed by the Army Corps almost five years ago. FIPPOA continues to retain Actum, the political and media public affairs firm, to encourage the Corps to schedule the far larger replenishment project as soon as possible, and certainly sometime this year.
We have had great success winning the Corps’ support for both the major replenishment project and our current stopgap project. However, our fight continues. The Corps is currently assessing the conditions of the east end beaches and developing plans for full renourishment. They are still going through the approval process for funding it, which will be 100% paid for by the federal government once the Corps determines that they have the money to move ahead. Once that happens, they will select a contractor and schedule the work.
Speaking of funding, the current stopgap project is expected to be fully funded by the $3 million in state grants secured by Governor Hochul based on the work of Actum. If the project exceeds the available amount, our Erosion Control District (ECD) will pick up the difference, though at this time, we do not anticipate that to be necessary.
There are a lot of moving pieces to all this, as you can tell, but the arrival of the cavalry to reinforce our dunes shows that we are winning this battle.
Pinch me again – this is no longer just a dream!
Best,
Henry
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