Fire Island Homeowners Present Certificates to

Jeffrey Kassner, Marie Michel and Barbara Wiplush

The Fire Island Association (FIA) and a delegation of homeowners presented certificates of appreciation to three Brookhaven town employees at a meeting in Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko’s office on June 12.

From left; Councilman Mazzei, Barbara Wiplush, Jerry Stoddard, Marie Michel, Deputy Supervisor Walsh, Supervisor Lesko. 
continue reading "Fire Island Homeowners Present Certificates"

Here is Kelly Risotto’s latest update on piping plover nesting activity in Fire Island communities:

Davis Park

1.     Nest 1DP (FINS 5A).  Hatch date was estimated at 6/3, but as of 13:30 yesterday, all four eggs were still present and the plover was still incubating.  We will be out again today (June 4) to check. 

2.     Nest 2DP (FINS 6A).  Hatch date is estimated at tomorrow (6/5).  As of yesterday, bird was incubating and the second was seen foraging near the water east of the Casino.

3.     Land Use observed a LIPA truck (license M 3242) driving from the west end into the cut at Davis Park yesterday.  I emailed FINS yesterday afternoon, and Lindsay was hopeful that they could put up no driving signs today. 

4.     Dune fence has been installed at the crest of the dune in front  of the Casino to prevent beachgoers from traversing the dune in that area. 

Fire Island Pines

1.     Nest 1FIP (FINS 14A).  Bird incubating; second not observed.

Ocean Bay Park

1.     Nest 1CFI (FINS 1C).  As of 6/2, bird was incubating and the second was observed foraging nearby.  We did not make it out there yesterday due to rain.

Comments and questions can be directed to Ms. Risotto at Land Use Ecological Services, PO Box 1060, Riverhead, NY 11901; 631- 727-2400; fax -2605; mobile 631- 764-7983; krisotto@landuse.us

Construction activity on the community-sponsored beach renourishment project was concluded before midnight on April 29, within the time window of the project extension granted by the Seashore. The final days of construction activity were aided by calm seas and generally moderate weather. On the final days of pumping, with both dredges in operation, the contractor exceeded 42,000 cubic yards per day. The wildlife monitor observed an isolated pair of piping plovers foraging in an area to the west of the project termination point, but 300 yards from the area of operations. They subsequently left the area.

Kelly Risotto reported on April 27 to Town officials and representatives of the community erosion control taxing districts on the key role the Fire Island National Seashore played in completion of the project:

“As you are all aware, the Fire Island community beach nourishment project met with several delays since construction started on January 27. This meant permit extensions were required from all federal and state agencies for work continuing into April. As you know, the project was planned to be completed by April 25 in the Central reach (Ocean Bay Park to Summer Club). But bad weather and equipment delays, most notably the three-day weather delay during the week of April 17, meant an additional extension would be necessary. Land Use Ecological Services worked closely with Superintendent Soller, and a final extension through April 29 allowed Weeks Marine to complete the project in its entirety.

“We all owe a debt of gratitude to Superintendent Soller for his understanding of how important this project is to the participating communities. That the communities themselves agreed with Weeks Marine to change the project sequence to minimize potential impact on piping plovers may have been important to his decision, but his awareness that the communities considered completion of the project to be critical was equally so, in our opinion. Chuck Bowman and I believe everyone should show their appreciation to Mr. Soller for his understanding and support on this matter.”

Kelly Risotto, Senior Ecologist, Land Use Ecological Services

●

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail report to FIA Board Members on a last-day visit to the operation as it neared conclusion at the beach off Summer Club:

All that remains for the contractor is beach dressing (grading, etc.) and equipment removal. The latter will be done from the beach and will have to await a calm day. Today (May 1) was calm but strong east winds are predicted later as a cold front moves through the area.

The new beach is impressive. The Ocean Beach groins have been buried (at least for now) and there is a 25-foot wide dune with elevation of 13-15 feet. Looking west, there is a gap extending from the west edge of the Central reach (Summer Club) to the east edge of the Western reach (Lonelyville). Robbins Rest and Atlantique did not participate in the project, and no sand was placed in the federal area west of Summer Club. Steve says spreading will fill some of that gap, but the useful life of non-continuous projects is shorter than that of continuous ones.

Steve Keehn believes the projects now in place are “good for five or six years.” At first, waves will spread the newly constructed beach profile over the existing bottom (the engineers call this “equilibration”). In this process, the underwater toe of the beach is built up by natural wave and current forces, as illustrated by the diagram in the post that follows.  As Mr. Keehn points out, this apparent “loss” of the part of the beach that is visible is wholly expected. The amount of sand estimated to move offshore is compensated for by placing about twice as much sand as is expected to remain on the beach .

While the restored beach is doing its job of protecting the communities over the next few years, people interested in shore protection for the long run have a different job to do. That is to continue to press government at all levels to put aside their differences and join in a comprehensive program of coastal management for the benefit of the region as well as Fire Island.   

The purpose of the recently constructed project was to restore protective features of the beach and dune system in Ocean Bay Park for short-term storm protection and enhance recreation.  Periodic beach nourishment is a normal maintenance activity for waterfront communities that are subjected to erosion of their beach and dune systems.  Shoreline recession coupled with the April 2007 nor’easter had resulted in critical erosion in sections of Ocean Bay Park.

The beach and dune nourishment consisted of constructing a beach berm with an elevation of 7.9 ft NAVD and a dune elevation of 13.9 ft NAVD along the community’s length of 2,281 ft.  The beach is stabilized by a taper section to the east and similar fill projects to the west. The 13.9 ft NAVD dune elevation is the same as the 15.0 ft NGVD elevation discussed in the Corps studies, but is just a newer datum.  The NAVD datum approximates mean sea level.  Dune slopes were built to be 1 ft vertical to 4 ft horizontal between the dune crest and beach berm.

The constructed beach berm was built wider than the expected equilibrium profile.  The construction profile will lose up to half its width and reach the equilibrium profile in a period of months to a year, which is demonstrated in the figure below.  The equilibrium profile will intersect the existing bottom at approximately -19 ft NAVD, which is the seaward limit of the active beach profile.

Overall, 159,000 cubic yards of sand were placed onto the project area in Ocean Bay Park.  However, only 96.7% cubic yards of the placed volume was eligible for pay.  The project area will be surveyed periodically in order to monitor the performance of the project.

2009 FIRE ISLAND, NY BEACH RENOURISHMENT
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
INTRODUCTION AND LOCATION
Eleven Fire Island communities are currently concluding a beach
renourishment project that began construction on January 27, 2009. The
eleven communities, shown below (figure 1) are part of the Towns of Islip
and Brookhaven, and the Villages of Saltaire and Ocean Beach, on Long
Island, New York.
continue reading "Description — 2009 Projects"

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jerry Stoddard

(212) 929-6415

Homeowners and Officials Tour Fire Island Beach Projects

Ocean Beach, N.Y. April 17 — Elected and agency officials joined coastal engineers and homeowner representatives on April 17 in a tour of a beach nourishment project Fire Island homeowners hope will protect their communities.
continue reading "FIA Press Release 4-17-09"

CPE’s Nicole Sharp reported late Wednesday that Ocean Bay Park’s project was completed late Tuesday. Operations moved to Seaview and west and had extended from Fairway Avenue to Crescent Avenue by Wednesday night.  The RN Weeks left early Wednesday morning for repairs and the BE Lindholm stopped pumping around noon due to rough seas. When the sea is calmer pumping will resume near the east border of the village of Ocean Beach.

FIA has arranged a tour for officials, the press and others for Friday morning, April 17. Fire Island Ferries has provided a boat to leave from Bay Shore at 9:00 a.m. The group will proceed to the beach, probably near Surfview Walk, to view the operation. Mayor Loeffler will welcome the visitors to the Village and a presentation on the beach fill techniques in use will be made by Steve Keehn, Senior Coastal Engineer for CP&E, at the Boat House in Ocean Beach. After a Q&A session, FIA president Jerry Stoddard will present certificates of appreciation to some of the government officials who helped arrange the permits and draft the contracts for the project.

The purpose of the tour is to underscore the fact that in the absence of government help, coastal residents sometimes must spend their own money to protect adjacent public beaches. But regardless of where the money comes from, for the next fifty years at least, the nation’s chief response to sea-level rise will be to make beaches wider and higher though periodic beach nourishment projects like the one now underway by Weeks Marine, Inc. at Fire island.

The FIA press release on the site visit and CP&E’s project description appear in the following posts.

Coastal Planning & Engineering’s Quin Robertson reported that pumping began in the Central Reach (Ocean Bay Park to Corneille Estates/Summer Club) around midnight on March 31. The R.N. Weeks pumped 2,300 cubic yards of sand before midnight that night and has since pumped another 85,000 yards in Seaview. There are two submerged pipelines, central and east. The central line, located between Fairway and Gale in Seaview, is currently building the beach eastward toward the border between Ocean Bay Park and Point O’Woods. The second (eastern) sub-line is located at about Oneida Street in eastern Ocean Bay Park. It is not yet in operation because winds must subside before the monobuoy (the pumping platform that connects the dredge to the submerged pipeline) can be connected. Repairs are also needed on the dredge, the B.E. Lindholm, which will serve the east sub-line when it is in place. Once this happens, the central line will help complete the eastern part of the Central Reach, and then both dredges will serve the central sub-line, building the beach toward its western completion point. Weeks Marine expects the Lindholm to be back on-line shortly, allowing double pumping of the east end of the Central Reach with two sub lines.  The eastern and central sub line will work towards each other to finish the eastern half as soon as possible.

The vehicle cut between Ocean Bay Park and Point O’Woods will remain closed until the eastern half of the Central Reach is completed. Until then, there is no driving on the beach between Ocean Beach and Ocean Bay Park except for emergency vehicles.

Despite equipment problems that prevented double pumping (where both of Weeks Marine’s dredges are at work in a single location) and a last-minute onset of bad weather, the projects at Fire Island Pines and Davis Park are expected to have been successfully concluded before the date at which activity at the eastern end of the projects must end under terms of the permit.

Weeks was at work dressing both beaches (the final step before equipment removal) on Sunday. Stockpiles of sand accumulated during the final day of sand pumping will be distributed throughout the eastern ends of the reaches to maintain as equitable distribution of sand as possible. A beach project is not over until a survey is performed to determine the extent to which the dredger has delivered and placed the amount of sand agreed on. But with dressing completed, Weeks will be moving its equipment from the eastern reaches to the central reach over the next three days.

Work will begin on the central reach (the fourth and final part of the community projects) as soon as the weather is calm enough to move the sub line there from Davis Park.  Moving the sub line requires calm seas, and the contractor hopes this will occur by Tuesday. That would allow pumping in central Fire Island to begin that evening.  The dredge B.E. Lindholm, which had equipment problems, should be back in service at around the same time. Thus, double pumping can begin as soon as the sub line is installed.  The sub line now at the Pines will also be installed in the central reach to maximize efficiency (each sub line with its own dredge). This will happen during the first favorable weather window after installation of the first sub line.

With decent weather, the entire project should be completed before April 25. Following project completion, Weeks will remove all equipment by barge during the earliest window of good weather.

Thanks to Coastal Planning’s Quin Robertson, Ph. D., for the information in this report.