Suffolk Closeup - Freeze Shoreline Movement And You Lose The Beach

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

On Long Island, “incrementally we are walling off the coast with bulkheads and rock revetments,” says Kevin McAllister, founding president of the organization Defend H20. This “prevents nature from maintaining a coastline that can absorb storm energy and deal with storms.”

The violent visit here this month of Isaias, a demonstration of storms coming earlier and with more severity and frequency because of climate change heating waters on which they feed, makes understanding how best to approach the shoreline yet more important.  

Pioneering coastal geologist Orrin Pilkey and his associate Katherine Dixon write: “What has become apparent after a century of shoreline hardening” is that “hard stabilization structures” might “modestly” protect some buildings “but sooner or later” will destroy the beach on which they are placed. “The coastal scientist understands that a beach,” they say, must undergo “natural movements in response to a rising sea level and the forces of weather.” Try to freeze shoreline movement in seeking to protect structures on a beach—and you lose the beach.

I first started doing journalism on coastal issues in 1962 focusing on Robert Moses’s scheme to construct a four-lane highway the length of Fire Island to, he said, “anchor the beach.” His plan came in conjunction with the then U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fire Island to Montauk Point project to build up to 50 fingers of rocks—“groins”—along the south shore and dump massive amounts of sand. Moses’ road was stopped by creation of the Fire Island National Seashore. 

Several years later came the Army Corps’ construction of groins (at up to $1 million in taxpayer dollars per groin) along the Westhampton oceanfront. It was a coastal version of “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.” The groins caught sand moving in the ocean’s east-to-west littoral drift but deprived the western portion of the barrier beach of that sand. The result: an ocean breakthrough, 190 houses destroyed or made uninhabitable and a $80 million (in taxpayer money) settlement. 

The disregard of coastal consequences has gone on and on. In 2015, $8.9 million in public money was spent to put 14,200 jumbo “geotextile” sandbags on the beach in Montauk to try to mainly protect 10 or so motels, and also condos and other oceanfront structures. All Suffolk County taxpayers are paying for the “maintenance”—at a cost $1 million a year in some years—of this 3,100-foot line of sandbags. They have been ravaged and uncovered by storms. And with the shore’s primary dune eliminated for the motels and other structures, the beach’s ability to withstand storms and rebuild itself through natural coastal processes does not exist.

Beyond Montauk, Suffolk County government is today pushing for what Mr. McAllister describes as “shoreline hardening”—bulkheading—at Indian Island County Park in Riverhead. The Nissequoque Village board has approved letting coastal homeowners build seawalls “that will impact the movement of sand to two public beaches,” he says. In Mastic Beach, the Army Corps first proposed a “road-dike” and has now dropped that for what Mr. McAllister calls the “donut plan”—having “ring walls” encircle 93 structures. 

There’s some good news. The Army Corps’ Fire Island to Montauk Point project has been “reformulated” over the decades and no longer is there a provision for groins. Indeed, the latest plan would remove some existing ones. 

And, there is a stipulation for “sand bypassing” at Fire Island, Moriches and Shinnecock Inlets. When I began writing about coastal issues, I learned that in California “sand bypass mechanisms” were placed in front of inlets allowing sand that otherwise would be sucked into them and deposited in bays, to keep flowing along coastlines adding to beaches. I crusaded for that here but the Army Corps wasn’t interested. It took nearly sixty years, but the Corps now supports it.   

Meanwhile, another federal government agency, the U.S. General Accountability Office, has just come out with a report concluding that “relocation due to climate change will be unavoidable in some coastal areas.” The report is titled: “Climate Change: A Climate Migration Pilot Program Could Enhance the Nation’s Resilience and Reduce Federal Fiscal Exposure.” It details the stories of four coastal areas “that have considered relocation: Newtok, Alaska; Santa Rosa, California; Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana; and Smith Island, Maryland.”

It says “many more communities will need to consider relocating in coming decades,” that “the preemptive movement of people and property away from areas experiencing severe impacts is one way to improve climate resilience.”

Let’s fight climate change—ending the burning of fossil fuel that is its main cause. And for Long Island’s most vulnerable, untenable areas, we must consider government-supported relocation.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Town Employees Continue The Herculean Task Of Isaias Clean-up

The Towphoto Smithtown Mattersn of Smithtown is busy compiling a detailed assessment of the destruction caused by the August 4th tropical storm Isaias.  

Damage includes upwards of 400 uprooted trees as well as beach and park damage.

The Salt Barn located at the highway department sustained structural damage and the roof was torn off the Parks Department Building in Kings Park. 

Minor damage has been reported at the Assessor and the Suffolk County Water Authority buildings. 

Parks Department working in the Morewood area of Smithtown photo courtesy of Ed SpinellaHighway Project Inspector Daniel G. Ryan and Steve Cameron assess damage on 6th Ave. in Kings Park. Photo Smithtown MattersCurrently highway crews are being assisted by teams from the Parks Department and private contractors. 

Crews are working from 5:30AM-8PM Monday through Friday, on Saturday from 6AM to 6PM and on Sunday from 8AM to 2 PM. Cleanup crews have been assigned to every hamlet.

photo courtesy of Ed SpinellaAccording to the Town’s update: Larger crews have been assigned to clear some of the hardest hit areas, including the hamlets of Commack and Kings Park, the Forestwood area, Brooksite Drive at 347 and northward, the Pines, Bow Drive below 347 & Townline Rd, and Browns Road. Trees and stumps marked for removal by the Urban forrester are mapped out digitally for a planned for excavation schedule.

Residents are reminded to separate leaf bags from brush. Highway crews are using heavy machinery and loaders to clear brush. This process is slowed greatly if crews have to manually remove leaf bags, which can also damage equipment.   

photo courtesy of Ed SpinellaWorkers have collected approximately 2400 tons of brush and debris at the Municipal Services Facility and there is at least 1,000 tons of debris at the Montclair Yard.

photo Smithtown MattersResidents should attempt to keep all brush clear from blocking any fire hydrants. Public Safety and Smithtown Fire Marshals have noted that residents still using generators should take a moment to confirm that the exhaust is facing outwards and at least 20’ away from a building. Dozens of individuals have been rushed to the hospital with CO poisoning. In addition, numerous homes have been damaged by fire caused by generators incorrectly positioned. 

Suffolk Closeup - Was Isaias A Sign Of Things To Come

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County took quite a blow from Isaias last week. And if the track of the hurricane-turned-tropical-storm when it hit us was 50 miles farther east it would have been much worse here. 

With gusts reaching more than 70 miles per hour there was a significant and extended loss of electricity from trees having fallen on electric lines and a shutdown of the Long Island Rail Road from trees falling on tracks. Fortunately, it was a fast-moving thus relatively short-lived storm with punches of fierce wind rather than days of rain. 

The bad news: it was a sampling of what’s ahead. 

“Going forward, because of climate change it will not be unusual for the Northeast to experience hurricanes with great intensity and frequency,” says Kevin McAllister, founding president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20. 

Hurricanes and tropical storms feed on the warmth of water over which they travel, and climate change has been causing an ever-higher temperature in water bodies worldwide resulting in more extreme and more frequent hurricanes—and earlier ones.

Isaias was the ninth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season and the earliest I-named storm on record. The season began on June 1 and runs to November 30. 

“What a fast start,” commented Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center, was saying on TV as Isaias was percolating. He predicted that because of “warm water” it would “continue to be” an “active” season. Late last week, the number of named storms and hurricanes the Climate Prediction Center of NOAA forecasts to hit the Eastern Seaboard including Long Island this year was increased to a total of 19 to 25, up from 13 to 19.

Meanwhile, on Long Island, says Mr. McAllister, an experienced and credentialed marine scientist, “incrementally we are walling off the coast with bulkheads and rock revetments”—not allowing nature to maintain a coastline that can deal with storms. “The natural system involves a dune which is a sand reservoir and shock absorber,” he explains. “It’s a beach-dune system.”

On Long Island, a good chunk of Montauk has become a poster child for dune destruction and the folly of then trying to deal with storms by artificial means.

The “primary dune” of a major section of the oceanfront of Montauk was eliminated decades ago for the construction of a string of mainly motels.

In recent years, a choice was made. It was either relocating mainly 10 or so motels and also condos and other structures, rebuilding the dune and allowing the “the natural coastal process”—the dynamic process that nature provides—to return. Or, and this is what happened in 2015, following the prescription of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: placing 14,200 jumbo “geotextile” sandbags, each 1.7 tons, in front of the buildings to try to protect them. The construction cost: $8.9 million.

Suffolk County government went along with this.

Indeed, a deal was cut in which you, dear reader, if you pay taxes in Suffolk County, are obligated to pay half the cost of “maintenance” of the sandbags, with the Town of East Hampton paying the other half. 

Legislator Al Krupski of Cutchogue was the sole county legislator to vote against this deal. The other 17 voted for it. He explained in a letter to his colleagues how he was “very familiar” with the “dynamics of the shoreline” having been for 20 years a member and for 14 years president of the Southold Board of Trustees, which oversees the shores and adjoining waters of Southold Town.

The cost of maintenance of the sandbags would reach $1 million a year, predicted Mr. Krupski, and he hit the cost figure of several recent years on the head.

The Town of East Hampton in a “hamlet study” subsequently recommended the relocation plan. But, since then, the town reversed itself—because of “pushback primarily from the business community in Montauk,” says Mr. McAllister. 

“It is very disappointing,” he says.

And in addition to Montauk, there are examples throughout Suffolk County of the mistake—still happening now—of “armoring” the shoreline. That next week. 

Also next week: details on an important report just released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office which says “millions of Americans live in coastal areas threatened by sea level rise, and in all but the very lowest sea level rise projections, the retreat of people and infrastructure due to climate change will become an unavoidable option in some areas along the U.S. coastline.” It says “Congress should consider establishing a pilot program…and provide assistance to communities that express interest in relocation as a resilience strategy.” 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Suffolk Closeup - The Future Of Energy On LI Is Green, Safe And Renewable

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“The Future of Energy on Long Island,” was the topic of a recent talk by Bob Catell, a Zoom presentation, part of the series of varied talks sponsored by Long Island Metro Business Association. (I spoke before LIMBA a while back on the deadly dangers of nuclear power.)

Mr. Catell is former chairman and CEO of Brooklyn Union Gas, what was the best utility in the New York Metropolitan Area. Its excellence was why when the Long Island Power Authority was created, it chose Brooklyn Union (which changed its name to KeySpan) to operate LIPA’s electrical system.

Mr. Catell is now chairman of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center at Stony Brook University and chairman, too, of the New York State Smart Grid Consortium. 

He “is a legend in the energy industry,” said one of the folks on the online Zoom event.

“We’re moving to renewables,” declared Mr. Catell. He noted how New York State is committed to generating 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2050. It’s the most ambitious green energy initiative of any state in the United States. Codified under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, it was passed by the State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo last year.

“It’s one of the strongest climate change laws in the world,” Ken Girardin of the Empire Center for Public Policy has said. “It’s a heavy lift, but not as difficult as coping with the effects of severe climate change if action is not taken.”

As to where all the green, renewable energy will be coming from, Mr. Catell said much will involve solar energy—and he detailed major solar projects underway in the state—and ambitious plans for wind energy, largely from off-shore wind turbines. The state plans to generate many thousands of megawatts from wind with turbines off Long Island and New York City. Solar and wind are a perfect combination, said Mr. Catell, because “wind blows strongest at night” when the sun doesn’t shine. And this mix, said Mr. Catell, would be complemented by “hydrogen produced from water.”

A dozen years ago I was out at the federal government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado where early work was being done on the production of hydrogen from water. I was at NREL on a shoot for my national TV program, Enviro Close-Up, and was amazed as senior scientist Dr. John Turner demonstrated the use of solar power to split the components of water—oxygen and hydrogen—with the hydrogen then becoming available as a carbon-free fuel. He flipped a switch and hydrogen was generated in a process called photoelectrolysis. “What we have here now is sunlight to hydrogen,” said Dr. Turner. “Hydrogen can be used in automobiles in fuel cells, to power our homes, to power our cars, to power our society…It’s the forever fuel,” He spoke of “the vision of a non-polluting energy society” with “an energy supply that is inexhaustible and non-polluting.”

And last month, while Mr. Catell was talking here about hydrogen, in Florida a $65 million plant to generate “green hydrogen” using solar was advancing, seen as opening in 2023.

On the New York State emphasis on offshore wind turbines, I asked Mr. Catell about the opposition by some commercial fishing interests and also some residents of Wainscott, where a cable from the proposed South Fork Wind Farm is supposed to land. “You need to engage these people and alleviate their concerns,” said Mr. Catell. Fishing interests “have a legitimate concern” about disturbances to “the sea bed” and “we have to be sensitive” to their worries and “move” proposed wind turbine sites and cable routes when necessary. Still, he pointed out, offshore wind generation has been successfully done in Europe on a wide scale “for many years.”

Mr. Catell also talked about the “move to electric vehicles” and it being “accomplished at a reasonable cost.” With start-up Tesla and its electric autos becoming this year the world’s most valuable carmaker, overtaking Toyota, the future for electric vehicles is bright.

Ernie Fazio, chairman of LIMBA and a co-author of the book Maglev America about the Maglev train—a train that moves with non-polluting magnetism—spoke at the event of it being “what we need for mass transportation” and ideal for Long Island. Mr. Catell was supportive.

Also, Mr. Catell discussed geothermal power, heat pumps, energy efficiency and gains in “battery storage.” He said the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center he chairs “is focusing on every aspect of the energy chain.”

Green, safe, renewable energy technologies can provide all the power we need—energy we can live with. A renewable energy windfall has arrived.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Former Assistant DA Locked Up At 14 Supports Trotta On Creation Of OIG

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County has been described as the “Wild East”—because of its many government scandals and history of corruption. That’s why Suffolk Legislator Rob Trotta has been seeking creation of an Office of Inspector General in Suffolk.

Mr. Trotta, a Republican from Fort Salonga, says such an office (one exists in neighboring Nassau County) is necessary because of a “culture of corruption and mismanagement” in Suffolk County government.  Mr. Trotta should know: he was for long a Suffolk Police Department detective before being elected a legislator in 2013.

Moving testimony for an Office of Inspector General—from a Suffolk attorney who specializes in criminal law—came recently at a hearing on the Trotta bill before the legislature’s Government Operations Committee. “Four decades ago, at age 14, in a courtroom just across the street from this building,” testified lawyer Daniel Rodgers in Hauppauge, “a Family Court judge directed that I be placed in handcuffs…. and taken through an underground tunnel and into Building 77…called the Suffolk County Children’s Shelter.”

Mr. Rodgers, of Cutchogue, who was to go on to become an assistant Suffolk DA and a special prosecutor in Suffolk, continued: “For six weeks I was locked in an 8-by-10-foot cinder-block room with a steel door, an iron cot bolted to the wall and bars on the windows. Subsequently, that same Family Court judge sentenced me to a maximum 18-month sentence at an upstate reform school…You might think there was a sound, logical reason for a Suffolk County Family Court judge to do that, but there wasn’t,” he said. “You see, I had never been arrested. That was because I never committed a crime.”

“I was a PINS kid, a ‘Person In Need of Supervision.’ This, after my mother died unexpectedly when I was eleven, left my father with five children and sent my life into a tailspin.” 

“I’m mad as hell because, even after forty years, nothing has changed. Recently, the supervising judge of Suffolk County Family Court issued a memorandum to all Family Court judges, pointing out that Suffolk County detains more children than any other county in the entire state by a very wide margin. You see, Family Court operates with confidentiality, in secrecy, in darkness. I for one can tell you, very few good things happen to our children in the dark.”

“So what’s the problem here in Suffolk County? Let’s call it what it really is: powerful police unions, toxic political parties and complete lack of oversight and therefore accountability,” said Mr. Rodgers. “As a practicing criminal attorney and former Suffolk prosecutor…I’ve seen just about everything. Most cops in Suffolk are honest, decent hardworking men and women. Ask any one of those honest officers and they’ll tell you about the five percent who aren’t. But everyone is afraid.”

“Most judges in Suffolk County are honest and decent. But I’ve seen the sheer incompetency. Everyone knows judges in Suffolk County are selected not because they are good or competent or wise, or even because we as citizens of Suffolk County want them. Judicial qualifications in Suffolk County are relative to how much time you volunteer at your local political party headquarters. Nothing more. Let that sink in for a moment,” said Mr. Rodgers.

“Our system in Suffolk County is broken and has been broken for decades and will continue to be broken unless we act. Please, I’m hoping one of you will have the backbone to stand up and be a hero,” he told the legislators. “Support the creation of an Independent Office of Inspector General in Suffolk County.”

But, said Legislator Trotta last week, his measure still has not gotten out of committee. He described Mr. Rodgers as “a good guy” and said his testimony emblematic of how “our bill is necessary to expose things like this.” Co-sponsored by Anthony Piccirillo, a Holtsville Republican, the measure declares that “it has become clear that greater change and oversight is essential to identify and eradicate instances of fraud, waste, abuse and corruption at the county level.”

When I asked Mr. Rodgers last week how he was able to recover from his ordeal, he related that after being released from reform school, he spent three years at what was the Melville House in Huntington, set up by folks from Stony Brook University, to try to assist boys here. “They turned me around.” He went on to SUNY Oswego and then law school in Ohio and returned to Suffolk County. His law offices are in Hauppauge and Southampton.

He said “I will continue” to press for an Office of Inspector General in Suffolk.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.