With both dredges working at Fire Island Pines, the beach had been filled to Coast Guard Walk by the weekend. More than 65,000 cubic yards of “excellent quality” sand has been placed at the Pines, according to Dr. Quin Robertson of Coastal Planning and Engineering. With double pumping, the Pines should be completed ahead of schedule and both dredges will then move to Davis Park, where the submerged pipeline is almost ready.

Equipment problems and brutal weather have combined to cause delay in the beach replenishment projects, but at this writing both dredges are in operation at Fire Island Pines. Weeks Marine (WMI) completed pumping sand in the Western Fire Island reach on Saturday and moved pipe and equipment to Fire Island Pines and Davis Park. The submerged pipeline (“sub-line” for short) is in place at the Pines and pumping began today with both dredges in operation as soon as the winds and high seas that accompanied the March 2 storm settled down. The sub-line that been used in the western reach will be taken directly to Davis Park (instead of to the central reach as planned) in order to be sure that the eastern-most community can be completed before any sign of Piping Plovers. An unexpected appearance by plovers could require the project to be shut down; most plover colonies are well east of the settled communities.

Both WMI dredges will be working in the Pines as the Davis Park site is prepared. Davis Park is only two-thirds the length of the Pines and there should be no trouble completing it by March 31, barring equipment breakdowns. As soon as Davis is completed the sub-line will be transferred to the central reach, where plover nesting has never been seen.

Winter weather is not conducive to beach building, but the risk to endangered species is too great to do it when seas are calmer (not to mention warmer). Had the project started in mid-November, as hoped, the March 31 completion date would not have been a problem. But permitting and bidding delays could not be avoided. WMI is working 24-7 to get the job done within the time allotted and has asked for the permit to be extended should that prove necessary.

The photo at right shows the first load of sand (about 2500 cubic yards) being pumped onto the beach near the Fair Harbor-Saltaire border by Weeks Marine, Inc (WMI) on Wednesday, January 27. (Click on the photo for a larger image.) Another eight loads were pumped before the operation shut down due to rough seas at around 7:00 a.m. on Thursday. Dredging is expected to resume on Friday, when the storm should have passed. Pumping will go on 24/7, weather permitting, until all the projects are completed.  The hopper dredge shown in the photo (the R.N. Weeks) is attached to a pumping station that moves the sand to the beach through a submerged line. The borrow area (sand source) is not where the vessel is sitting in the photograph, but approximately 1.6 miles southeast from the project location.  The pumping platform will stay where it is until the western reach (Saltaire to Lonelyville) is completed. Then the submerged pipeline and floating hose will be relocated to the next (central) reach. A second pumping platform and submerged pipeline will be used for the Fire Island Pines and Davis Park projects, starting in mid-February.

The beach is now closed to driving, except for emergency vehicles, between the Kismet Cut and the Town of Islip Beach (Atlantique).

Coastal Planning & Engineering reports:

Dredging for the 2008-2009 Fire Island Beach Renourishment project is predicted to start as early as Saturday evening, or more likely sometime on Sunday, January 25, 2009, weather allowing.  Construction will start in Fair Harbor, and move west initially. During the first day or two of pumping, the beach will be open to traffic.  Once a substantial amount of sand is placed upon the beach, traffic must be detoured around the construction area, except for emergency vehicles.  Traffic will be detoured to the inland road between Kismet Cut and the Town of Islip Beach cut to the east of Lonelyville.  A detour sign will be placed at the Kismet cut.

During construction, scheduled to last a couple of months, detours and beach closures should be anticipated.  Beach closures will occur in the following order: Western Fire Island Communities (Saltaire to Lonelyville), Fire Island Pines, Central Fire Island Communities (Cornielle Estates and Summer Club to Ocean Bay Park), and Davis Park.

Coastal Planning & Engineering Inc. will have a field representative (N. Sharp or Q. Robertson) on site during construction and can be reached locally at 631-387-7320 or at their main office 561-391-8102.

Alternating Points of contact for the dredger (Weeks Marine Inc.) are as follows:

Dean Robinson: 985-705-2970 for the next two weeks

Mike Ward: 985-237-5037

Weeks Marine can also be reached at their office in Bay Shore at: 631-328-5821

A Reply to FINS

In the Fall 1999 newsletter of Save Our Seashore, Inc., the Superintendent of the Fire Island National Seashore set forth his position on the proposed Fire Island Interim Project, a transitional shore protection effort designed to protect Fire Island beaches until a longer term solution known as the Reformulation Study can be implemented.

In the course of doing so he demonstrated a bias against the project. The Fire Island Association believes the Superintendent’s position would place properties and government infrastructure, both on Fire Island and on the south shore of Long Island, at needless risk in order to effectuate a policy designed to facilitate removal of private development from the barrier island. Supt. Dillon’s statement is attached. His major points are encapsulated below in bold­face type, followed by comments from the Fire Island Association.
read more from "1999 — Seashore Opposes Interim Project"

COMMUNITY SELF-HELP BEACH NOURISHMENT PROJECTS

It is the policy of the Fire Island Association (FIA) to fully support the right of each member community to decide and implement its own policy regarding beach nourishment and other shore protection projects paid for by village government or local erosion control taxing districts. FIA, the principal stakeholder group, represents the interests of the owners of nearly 4,000 residential and business properties on Fire Island, the barrier island between Long Island’s south shore and the Atlantic Ocean.

read more from "Community Self-Help Beach Nourishment Projects"

Following its success in defeating proposals to build a “service road” from the Robert Moses Causeway to Ocean Beach in the 1950s, the Fire Island Erosion Control Committee was incorporated as the Fire Island Voters Association in 1961. The corporate charter was modified to change the name to Fire Island Association (FIA) in 1981. The FIA Board of Directors comprises the mayors of Ocean Beach and Saltaire and the leaders of eighteen community associations. The Board elects a president, first vice president, treasurer, secretary and three vice presidents every two years.

            With approximately 1,600 households paying $75 in annual dues, and many additional contributions to the Association’s Dunes Guardians Committee, FIA raises and spends significant amounts in furtherance of its members’ interests. Only the Association president receives a stipend ($28,000 per year); all other officers and directors contribute services pro bono. The Association retains a Washington representative (Marlowe & Co.), an environment counsel (Holland & Knight, also of Washington), and local public relations counsel (Shapiro Associates of Hauppauge). Other professional services (printing and mailing, legal and various consultants) are retained as needed.

             As the successor to organizations that were instrumental in creating the park, FIA’s prime objective is to assure its ongoing effective administration. As a small National Park largely given over to a Wilderness Area, FINS is also unique in that numerous communities and other interest groups are wholly contained within it. Thus, a mutually supportive relationship between the park and the communities is essential. Given the makeup of its board, of the many interest groups on the island, FIA is best situated to communicate with community associations as well as with individual FIA members. But FIA also is aware that only if all island interests are taken account of can this unique unit of the National Park system serve resident and visitor alike, while preserving and conserving its important natural resource and wilderness values for the nation.

            A defining characteristic of Fire Island is that it is a developed barrier island that lacks a formal road system. Only by limiting the use of off road vehicles can the island maintain that unique status, which is much valued by park residents and visitors.  FIA recognizes that it is primarily the provision of services to Fire Island residents and businesses that occasions most of the driving, and that any reduction in the amount of permitted driving may cause delay and increase the cost of providing those services. How these interests are balanced is critical to maintaining each community’s quality of life.

            Non-essential driving on Fire Island should be supplanted, wherever possible, by water transport. In a few cases, homes are accessible only by driving on the beach at some times of year and provision for this access must be made. Apart from these rare cases, however, and aided by the proliferation of 4WD vehicles, off road and beach driving has become a convenience for some. The Association holds that any discretionary driving on Fire Island should be strongly discouraged. That said, the island’s ocean beach has been used for vehicular travel for more than eight decades. Where necessary, it should continue to be used for that purpose.

A narrow, deeply rutted and eroded beach is ill-suited for vehicular transport as well as unattractive to beach users. In contrast, a wide, flat beach can accommodate vehicles, while keeping space between vehicles, beach users and dune vegetation. Vehicle use in these conditions has only a negligible impact on the beach itself, and can be controlled to avoid impact on protected species. At the same time, failure to raise and widen the beach as an element of routine coastal management forces vehicles, including emergency vehicles, to an inland route that can only be traversed slowly, noisily and at a heavy cost to the island’s auto-free character. Consequently, FIA believes that routine beach nourishment, whatever else it may accomplish in terms of protection of property and the island itself, is essential to maintaining the park’s roadless environment. (Note: The community of Cherry Grove is not in favor of beach nourishment. While supporting the balance of the statement, it wishes to be excepted from this paragraph.)

 Fire Island Association

August 2002