Opinion: Should Long Island Towns Surrender to Beach Erosion?

For the last 15 years I have covered stories about fighting beach erosion. When I lived on Ditch Plains Beach in Montauk for four years I watched daily how the storms, winds, and tides changed the ocean beach shoreline daily. However, I also noticed how every year there was less of the bluffs at Turtle Bay and Camp Hero out by the Montauk Lighthouse. Everyone knows the story about how far the Lighthouse once was from the sea.

Over the years I have gone to all kinds of meetings where experts made presentations of how to fight back against beach erosion. At the meeting the surfers and naturalists would be there to say, "Leave it alone!" while businessmen such as motel owners in the village would scream, "Something must be done or the village will be gone."

With the recent pitched battle of "Dirtbag Beach" still in everyone's mind, a conflict that some felt positioned surfers, naturalists and other concerned citizens against the East Hampton town board and Army Corps of Engineers, the end result was a huge expensive attempt to curtail the advance of erosion on Montauk Village beaches.

No one is claiming success and no one is rooting for total failure. However, at the moment, we have totally neither and little bit of both. The truth is you can't fight Mother Nature and slowly but surely businesses and homes too close to the eroding shorelines of the bays, oceans, and Sound will fall into the sea if not moved. No amount of revetments, artificial dunes, or filled plastic sandbags will hold off the power of the oceans, bays, and Sound indefinitely.

I can understand the desperation of those who will lose their homes, property and big money if and when this happens. I, too, would fight for town, state and federal help if I were in their position. However, a new prudent approach is needed at addressing at this situation. Already homes on Fire Island that were too close to the ocean were condemned and told to be moved or taken down risking huge fines. Now a motel or two in Montauk are being asked to move inland, no doubt a very expensive undertaking. Even then there is no guarantee the next big storm won't destroy them anyway. The motel business in the summers in Montauk by the beach has been sensational for many years. Now it's even better. Asking people to abandon their gold mines is a tough sell.

However, can towns continue to fight uphill battles to preserve risk takers who profit hugely by their property rights on ocean beaches? Tough question. In the next two years town leaders all over Long Island will have to address this issue. I believe eventually they will conclude, "In the end, you can't fight Mother Nature."

Patch photo by T.J. Clemente.

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