Town, Environmentalists React To Army Corps Montauk Harbor Plan

MONTAUK, NY - A plan presented to the East Hampton town board by the United Army Corps of Engineers for Montauk Harbor has sparked some discussion.

Recently, the Army Corps came before the town board with plans for the area meant to create a beach, provide, dredging, and erect groins, with the goal of stabilizing the shoreline, which has seen erosion.

According to East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell has several parts, to deepen the inlet into Montauk Harbor, so it would be dredged to a deeper depth and made wider, allowing for the larger commercial fishing boats in the waters.

The channel, he said, is federally maintained, so United States Coast Guard access to the harbor is important. "Deepening and widening the channel is positive," he said.

In addition, the plan calls for beach re-nourishment in the area west of the jetty that has seen erosion, Cantwell said.

The board widely agreed with that portion of the plan, he said.

However, the issue of groins sparked some contention.

The Army Corps, Cantwell said, presented eight alternatives, ranging from $10 million to $20 million, with the preferred plan including the creation of groins.

"The town board has opposed that plan because East Hampton's Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan does not peromit constructions of perpendicular groins or jetties," he said.

The board would only support the beach renourishment and dredging components of the plan, he said.

Kevin McAllister, president of Defend H20, also voiced his concerns.

To help reduce the risk to coastal properties down drift of the Lake Montauk inlet, the infamous Army Corps of Engineers has a plan. A plan that includes the placement of dredged sediments which may not be beach compatible," due to coarse grain size, he said. "And, of course, includes hard structures in the form of groins to further impede sand flow along the more westerly Culloden Point."

With sand bypassing being the "prudent" management action, McAllister said he was "perplexed" as to why the Corps has eliminated this approach without public explanation. "While East Hampton officials are poised to reject the groin field because it violates local law, it’s imperative they insist that the Corps reconsider sand bypassing as the preferred alternative, or explain why not. In conjunction with a large volume, coarse sand replenishment project, bypassing may buy some time before the only viable alternative is realized, coastal retreat," he said.