Millions Were Spent to Fix Fire Island’s Beaches. Some Have Completely Eroded.

Below excerpts are from an August 11th article published by The New York Times. The full article is available here.

Just a few years ago, the beach at Fire Island Pines was almost as wide as a football field, the result of a $1.7-billion government project [Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point project] to combat erosion on the South Shore of Long Island after Hurricane Sandy.

But today, parts of that same beach are barely as wide as a volleyball net.

Most of that damage was done in the wake of a single winter storm last December that triggered rapid erosion on Fire Island and appeared to undo large parts of that decade-long restoration project in a matter of months.

…Efforts to protect Fire Island — and the legacy of the government anti-erosion project — appear hamstrung by rules that make the United States Army Corps of Engineers responsible for maintenance and emergency repairs on any beach they have built, a stark change from the more flexible approach that local leaders said was possible before Sandy.

“This is, I think, the worst the beach has ever been in my 25 years on Fire Island,” said Henry Robin, the president of the Fire Island Pines Property Owners’ Association.

The project’s work on Fire Island included the placement of 2.3 million cubic yards of sand. When it was completed, the island was left with broad beaches, a protective shield of high dunes, and the hope that maybe the problem had been solved.

But because the Army Corps is now in charge of the beach, local residents can no longer just organize repairs themselves. Instead, they must work with the federal government.

There are at least three bureaucratic avenues they can pursue, but the Army Corps has already turned down what may have been the quickest and easiest one, [Mr. Robin] said. Each of the remaining options involves a complex stand-alone project that could take months or years.

Meanwhile, the sea draws ever closer.

“Because of the damage to the beach, we may now be in the most vulnerable state we have ever been in,” said Mr. Robin, looking out over the waves on a recent day. “There’s no beach out there.”

Click here to read the full article.