$119B Sea Wall Proposed For NY Harbor [POLL]

The latest proposal to protect New York City and New Jersey from storm surges such as were seen during Superstorm Sandy is an estimated $119 billion, 6-mile-long sea wall that would stretch from the Rockaways in Queens to New Jersey across New York Harbor. The idea comes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps is examining five different approaches and their feasibilities to manage future flooding risk in the area, Science Alert reported.

The final report of the multi-year study is excepted to be released, along with its recommendations, sometime in 2022.

Criticism of the $119 billion proposal, which would take 25 years to build, has been — forgive the pun — pouring in.

President Donald Trump tweeted that the proposal was "costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly."

He added that it will also look terrible.

"Sorry, you'll just have to get your mops & buckets ready!" Trump tweeted.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, pointed out more than just a sea wall will be needed to protect against future storm surges, because "[o]ff shore storm barriers simply cannot protect all of our coastal communities from the myriad challenges posed by climate change and are incompatible with a healthy, thriving New York Harbor."

Stringer said estimates published by the New York Panel on Climate Change cautioned that sea levels surrounding the city can be expected to rise as much as 21 inches by the 2050s and by as much as 39 inches by the 2080s.

He also said scientists said the chances of a Sandy-type storm hitting the city have increased from a one-in-500-year event to a one-in-25-year event today.

Riverkeeper, which helped bring back a healthier Hudson River, is concerned about how a massive sea wall will affect shorelines upstream from New York Harbor.

The organization's President Paul Gallay said that a barrier is "a shiny object, a silver-bullet fix luring us away from where we need to go."

He said the danger of one big wall is that "if it fails, we're all in danger. We need layered solutions," such as ways to protect communities from both storms and sea level rise.

Now it's your turn to weigh in. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.