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Neighbors want nature to have its way, town hopes groins
will save shoreline
By Lisa Cowley
Shell Beach was once an island and may be again if nature
and some Islanders have their way. But town officials are
working on a plan to keep the beach's road open and the
peninsula intact.
About 40 years ago, instead of a peninsula, Shell Beach was
part of a series of barrier islands with access dependent on
the tide. Wind and water have again limited access to the
public beach -- the road is washed out on the south side where
undercutting and erosion have removed chunks of the built-up
peninsula, reinforced when a county dredge dropped spoils
there in November 2005. The recurring problem has again
resulted in the placement of concrete barricades to block
passage by motor vehicles as it did in the fall of 2005.
"Most of the residents of Silver Beach would like to see it
the way it used to be," Pete Bethge, a Silver Beach resident
and chairman of the Waterways
Management Advisory Council (WMAC), said during an interview
last month. But Supervisor Alfred Kilb Jr. still sees the
future of Shell Beach as a peninsula and is developing a plan
to replace failing groins with new low profile structures that
can stabilize the beach beneath the roadway.
Mr. Bethge described Shell Beach of old: "There were maybe
three or four different small islands and when there was a bad
storm, you used to be able to sail over it. When there weren't
any storms, it would build up a little bit and you could walk
all the way to the end; you'd have to wade through very
shallow water to get over to it." In the early 1960s, the town
used dredging spoils to build up Shell Beach and created a
road that connected to the mainland at the end of Silver
Beach. "They put groins along the south and that made the
beach build up," said Supervisor Kilb. "Every time they had a
dredging project in the area, they would pour the spoils into
it and it grew into a fairly substantial peninsula." The
peninsula was full of nesting shorebirds, shellfish and
shoreline plants.
At that time, the built-up peninsula simply provided a
beach for the residents, Mr. Kilb said, and "they didn't pay
attention to any environmental problems." For example, when
the brown tide epidemics affected local waters, it hit the
West Neck system hard. "Part of the problem with West Neck
Harbor was it wasn't flushing properly. When they blocked off
that channel, there wasn't enough volume of water flushing out
of the creek. They have always blamed that for the reason that
the brown tide recurred here in West Neck."
Remnants of the original groins are still in place but
portions of them have failed and have been removed at the
request of the state Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC), Mr. Kilb said. When the groins failed, there was a
scouring effect on upland areas.
"It is uncertain whether the DEC will allow the town to
replace those groins, which are the mechanism needed to stop
the erosion," the supervisor said.
"Over the last five years, there has been more erosion and
the town took out one groin which was in very bad disrepair
and it really didn't make much difference," Mr. Bethge said.
"It's just when you get the really bad winds, it blows the
sand away." WMAC members talked with the Town Board about the
erosion issue; ultimately the town must decide whether or not
to keep building up Shell Beach or to let the water cut
through, as it had in years past, which, Mr. Bethge said,
would help the flushing of the bay.
WMAC members suggested that the town appoint an expert to
study the problem, according to Mr. Bethge. They recommended
Jason Tanski, Coastal Processes and Facilities specialist at
SUNY Stony Brook's Sea Grant Extension Program, who is
well-versed in erosion control. "We called him, told him the
problem and he said he'd be willing to assist the town, but we
didn't pursue it any further," said Mr. Bethge.
Mr. Tanski said he hasn't seen any proposals yet. "I said I
would be happy to look at what was being proposed and to give
them an idea of what the potential impacts might be, what the
options are, what the pros and cons were of what was being
proposed ... I would be available to discuss it with them and
perhaps do a site visit."
Rather than consulting with Mr. Tanski, Supervisor Kilb
asked marine contractors, whose names he did not wish to
disclose, to look into the situation. "In order to repair the
road properly, we need to have stabilization along the
southwest shore. We do that through low profile groins, which
allows the beach to build up," he said.
The contractors are considering replacing the older
decaying groins with a new low profile design: these avoid the
"scalloping" effect that can increase erosion between
structures, a problem with the older groins. A low profile
allows sand to build up and "dump over" the groin, keeping the
sand in the same general beach vicinity, Mr. Kilb explained.
By keeping the sand on the beach, the low profile groins may
prevent the scouring that is undercutting the road.
"That would be the way to do it," Highway Superintendent
and public works director Mark Ketcham said in a recent
interview. He will ask the Town Board to authorize the permits
and contracts needed to move forward with the plan, he said.
Similar groins placed at Crescent Beach have limited erosion
there, he said, and are now invisible because "they've
accomplished the task" -- stabilizing the beach from beneath
and allowing excess sand to flow over the structures.
However, Mr. Kilb said the DEC hasn't been particularly
open to allowing the town to rebuild the groins. The DEC would
prefer to avoid structures and instead soften the shoreline
with vegetation and shellfish beds. "There's a battle between
natural shorelines and protecting something that was man-made.
In this particular section that we're trying to protect, it's
man-made," the supervisor said. He added that the man-made
peninsula needs man-made engineering to "hold the road."
Mr. Kilb indicated that the contractors are developing a
proposal to replace the groins and will approach the DEC, on
behalf of the town, to make the case. Cost estimates and
assessments of the possible impacts will be presented to the
Town Board prior to a DEC application, Mr. Kilb explained. But
if the DEC won't approve the plan or costs run too high,
nature may have its way. "If it looks like too rough of a
road," said Mr. Kilb, the town may just "let it go" -- let
West Neck Harbor and West Neck Bay flush through.
Silver Beach residents would welcome that, according to Mr.
Bethge. "Most Silver Beach residents would prefer to have it
the way it was because it cuts down on traffic and the usage
of the bay, which cuts down on pollution."
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