Editor’s Comments: Shifting Sands, and a Looming Decision
Some say, if you look hard enough you can find a bright side to just about anything, and while that might not be universally true, the residents of New York’s Fire Island have made a pretty good go of it. They took some of the worst damage caused four years ago by Hurricane Sandy and turned it into a water-quality victory of sorts.
Fire Island lies about four miles off Long Island’s south shore and runs roughly parallel to it, separated from Long Island by Great South Bay. As a barrier island, Fire Island has undergone many changes—some caused by nature and some by human intervention—in the last few centuries. In the 1600s it was part of a 60-mile-long island until an inlet broke through, separating Fire Island from what is now Jones Beach Island. Natural deposition of sand has increased the island’s width at times, and storms have taken parts of it away.
In 2009, because the beaches had been eroding, residents of Fire Island agreed to a property tax increase to pay for a beach nourishment program. Sand dredged from offshore—1,800,000 cubic yards of it—was added to portions of the island to increase the width of the beaches and create dunes. Beach nourishment is often a controversial process—some argue that whatever forces caused the beach to erode in the first place will continue, eating away at the costly new beachfront as well—but in this case the $25 million project turned out to be a good call. When Hurricane Sandy arrived three years later, it did indeed undo most of the beach nourishment work, but the sand that had been added protected the properties behind it. High tides and storm surges removed about 75 feet of beach and flooded most of the island’s homes—destroying 90 of them—but thousands of homes remained standing.
Sandy’s largest and most lasting effect, though, was a breach it created right through the island. Before Sandy, Fire Island was a single island about 31 miles long and varying in width from about 500 to a little over 1,300 feet. The storm cut through the island at a point known as Old Inlet, creating a passage between Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The first thought of many residents was that the breach should be closed because it would leave parts of the island vulnerable to flooding. Other residents, marine biologists, and environmental groups, however, are advocating to leave it as is. Because of the new passage, the heavily polluted waters of Great South Bay—largely caused by urban stormwater runoff, with frequent algae blooms and a dying ecosystem—are now improving as some of the pollutants are washed out to sea. New water from the Atlantic, as well as marine life, are entering the bay. Some locals are hopeful that, with time, the bay’s shellfish industry might be reestablished.
Over centuries, other breaches have opened during storms and closed up again, one of them in just about the same spot. The difference today, perhaps, is that more homes and other infrastructure exist on the island, and letting nature simply take its course could be far more costly than in the past. The greater flooding anticipated because of the breach has not yet occurred, but two smaller Sandy-caused breaches have been closed because of flood concerns.
The breach lies in federally protected land called Otis Pike Wilderness Area, and the National Park Service has been monitoring to see if the breach closes on its own; in fact, it has gotten slightly wider. An environmental assessment is ongoing, and the Park Service will eventually decide whether to ask the US Army Corps of Engineers to close the breach—a project estimated to cost $20 million. The results of the assessment will be released soon, and the public will have a chance to comment on the findings.
What are your thoughts? Should those who build on a barrier island accept the natural fluctuations of the foundation they’ve built on, or should our priority be to protect the infrastructure we’ve created? How heavily should the improved ecosystem of Great South Bay weigh in the decision-making process?
Janice Kaspersen
Janice Kaspersen is the former editor of Erosion Control and Stormwater magazines.