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. 

The employees were singled out for their special efforts to help the town’s Fire Island communities raise property taxes to pay for vital beach nourishment projects in the Brookhaven portion of the Fire Island National Seashore.

            “When property owners agree to higher taxes to pay for a needed project, it can get pretty complicated,” Gerard Stoddard, FIA president, said. “These experts applied their unique talents and worked with several other federal, state and Islip town agencies to draft the permits needed to make the project happen,” he added.

            Receiving certificates depicting the Fire Island Lighthouse were Jeffrey Kassner, Assistant Director of Environmental Protection, and attorneys Marie Michel and Barbara Wiplush of the Town Attorney’s office. Timothy Mazzei, Councilman for Brookhaven’s 5th District, which includes the barrier beach, and Deputy Supervisor Kathleen Walsh (who also represents the 3rd Council District) helped arrange the meeting honoring the awardees.   

            The Erosion Control Taxing Districts of the Brookhaven communities of Davis Park, Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island Pines and the Brookhaven part of Seaview received the town’s permission to add to the taxes levied to pay for community erosion control projects. Related efforts in the Villages of Saltaire and Ocean Beach and five other communities in the Islip part of Fire Island, will result in a total of approximately $23 million in new property taxes over the next five years.

            The new tax will pay for 1.9 million cubic yards of sand placed on the public beaches of the Fire Island National Seashore that are adjacent to the participating communities. The communities hope the additional sand, dredged from offshore deposits, will help protect the Fire Island barrier until New York State and the U.S. Army the Corps of Engineers can agree to a more comprehensive project extending from Fire island Inlet to Montauk Point.

            More such projects will be needed in the future, according to Mr. Stoddard. “For at least the next 50 years, coastal communities will have to raise and widen beaches with sand from offshore deposits as the primary response to rising sea levels,” he said.

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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 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.

FIGURE 1: FIRE ISLAND LOCATION MAP

Fire Island is a 31-mile long barrier island located on the south shore of
Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York (Figure 1). The island is
bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the south, Fire Island Inlet to the west,
Moriches Inlet to the east, and Great South Bay to the north. Fire Island
consists of a mixture of National, State and County Parks, municipal
recreation areas, and a number of residential communities. The
communities, located between Robert Moses State Park and the Otis G. Pike
Federal Wilderness Area (Watch Hill), are mostly single family vacation
homes, a smaller number of full-time residences, and a few stores and public
buildings needed for community living.
Beach nourishment was needed to avoid the state of critical erosion that has
occurred in the past. The 2009 project communities, renourishment
segments, and sand sources are identified in Figure 1. The Fire Island total
project area encompasses four segments, 26,000 linear feet of shoreline and
a renourishment volume of 1.8 million cubic yards of sand from offshore
sites. The two borrow areas were developed for the 2003 project and still
contain 2.8 million cy of beach-compatible sand. The project is currently
under construction by Weeks Marine, Inc. of Cranford, New Jersey. The
project size by reach is as follows:

Volumetric Summary
Western Fire Island 468,000 cy
Central Fire Island 548,100 cy
Fire Island Pines 500,000 cy
Davis Park 305,000 cy
TOTAL 1,821,100 cy

HISTORY
Several Fire Island communities have nourished their beaches periodically
since the aftermath of severe storms in the early 1990’s. Earlier projects
date back over 50 years. A number of communities were nourished using
the 1994 borrow area (Figure 1). Western Fire Island was nourished with
465,000 cubic yards, and Fire Island Pines received approximately 200,000
cubic yards. Ocean Beach, among other communities, was also nourished.
In 1997, the Fire Island Pines project was completed by placing 650,000
cubic yards from the 1997 borrow area.

Five communities were renourished with sand from two new offshore
sources between November 2003 and January 2004. The communities were
grouped under three contracts: the Incorporated Village of Saltaire, Town of
Islip (Fair Harbor, Dunewood, Lonelyville) and Town of Brookhaven (Fire
Island Pines). The projects were constructed by Great Lakes Dredge and
Dock Company using their hydraulic cutterhead dredge Alaska and trailingsuction
hopper dredge Liberty Island. The construction volumes for
Western Fire Island and Fire Island Pines were 717,728 and 560,840 cy,
respectively, as measured in February 2004. Thus, since 1994, a total of 2.59
million cubic yards have been placed at the expense of local taxpayers on
public beaches fronting the communities of Fire Island (Kismet to Davis
Park).

Photos 1- 3: Davis Park during and after April 2007 Nor’easter
and Post-construction (April 1, 2009)

In April 2007, a major northeast storm eroded dunes and lowered beach
elevations along Fire Island. The communities that participated in the 2003-
04 projects, however, were not damaged as extensively as those that had not
elected to nourish their beaches in those projects. They also suffered less in
the way of volumetric loss to their dunes and beaches. Equally important,
losses that were incurred were eligible under FEMA Category G funding
guidelines since the storm had been declared a national disaster.
Davis Park, already severely eroded with hot spots that extended along onethird
of the community shoreline, was further eroded by the April 2007
nor’easter (see Photos 1-3). The same nor’easter aggravated the long-term
erosion trend at Ocean Beach and Seaview. Ocean Bay Park, Corneille
Estates and Summer Club all experienced similar erosion damage, requiring
action to be taken to avoid entering the state of critical erosion that occurred
in the past.

PROJECT OBSTACLES AND SUCCESSES
Even before construction began, the multiple-reach project faced several
obstacles. Eleven communities were required to come together, with four
contracting authorities agreeing on a single contract. This required
formation of an Inter-municipal Agreement (IMA) Team to decide the
course of the project. At times, the separate entities found it difficult to
decide on a single approach. In the end, however, they were able to agree on
the most critical topics and thus provide the best available outcome for the
overall project. Along with the IMA Team, several local political leaders
worked cooperatively to make the 2009 Renourishment Project a reality.
Not only was the eleven-member team required to act in unison, the project
also required permits from New York state, the US Army Corps of
Engineers and the US Department of the Interior (DOI). One DOI agency
(Fire Island National Seashore) acted as lead Federal agency for granting
project permits, presiding over the process. Nevertheless, the process was
laborious: Permitting for the 2009 project began in fall of 2006. Final
permits were not received until December 2008, only weeks before
construction had to begin to insure completion before the onset of Piping
Plover nesting season, when all activity on the beach was required to end.
But, without the hard work and dedication of many, it would not have been
possible to agree on the permits at all.

With the permits obtained, inevitable delays and obstacles were encountered
during construction. Large swell and storms that occur during the winter
months routinely shut down dredging operations for days at a time and delay
crucial mobilization operations (Photo 4). Higher and more frequent waves
also make proper placement of fill on the beach harder to accomplish. It is
difficult to credit volume placed on the beach while it is being washed away
by heavy surf, which is why beach projects are best constructed when the
sea is calmer.
Several large wave events occurred over the winter of 2009, removing sand
from the beach fill template almost as soon as it was placed. This meant the
contractor had to be able to pump and measure the profile quickly and
effectively. Pay volume templates were modified somewhat to deal with
this difficultly. The installation of sub-line is the most weather dependent
operation, which contributed to construction delays. A calm day is needed
(Photo 4) but calm days are scarce in the winter.
Photo 4: Sub-line installation on Fire Island March 13, 2009.
The construction schedule originally adopted contemplated the use of two
hopper dredges, one to complete the Western reach and proceed to the
Central, and the second, arriving later to work at Fire Island Pines and then
proceed to Davis Park. Unfortunately, given the late start combined with
bad weather and equipment problems, it became clear that the project could
not be completed by March 31, the permit deadline based on expected onset
of breeding activity by Piping Plovers.

Davis Park was the participating community closest to likely plover nesting
sites, but also the community most in need of beach and dune
renourishment. In another demonstration of inter-community cooperation, it
was decided to complete work at Davis Park in advance of the Central reach
where experience has shown plovers are less likely to attempt nesting. This
required a request that the permitting agencies allow work to continue in a
single reach (the Central) until April 25, with operations ceasing in those
closer to historic plover nesting.
Photos 5-7: Dunewood was renourished in 2009 before critical erosion
reappeared as it had before the 2003-4 project: Before 2003-4 project,
Pre-construction (January 2009) and Post-construction (March 2009).

The project demonstrates how a plan for periodic renourishment aids in
maintaining a substantial amount of shoreline, instead of waiting until
erosion has become critical. Photos 5-7 show the Dunewood shoreline did
not retreat to the point of critical erosion which threatened structures in 2003
and earlier. Photo 6 shows that both the beach and dune maintained position
along the line of houses with minimal losses since 2004. In other words, the
project was a success in restoring the shoreline and providing greater storm
protection at Dunewood, in part because it had a previously restored beach
to begin with.
The Fire Island project also shows why renourishment is important. Davis
Park was in a state of critical erosion before the project began in late winter
of 2009 (see Photos 8 and 9). The renourishment project restored the
community’s protective dunes and beach width. The general public is often
unaware of the benefits of beach restoration and expects dramatic changes
with a beach nourishment project. With maintenance nourishment projects,
the benefits of the renourished beach are less dramatic than an emergency
project implemented to repair a critically eroded shoreline.
CONCLUSION
Fire Island’s 2009 Project succeeded in renourishing the beaches of eleven
participating communities in four reaches. The project successfully brought
together eleven sometimes disparate communities to achieve a common goal
of restoring the shoreline of Fire Island. Other than the FEMA storm aid,
the communities’ projects are privately funded to provide beach protection
until the larger Corps’ Fire Island to Montauk Point project can be approved
and implemented. The project has an anticipated 5-year design life and will
aid in preserving the shoreline for future visitors to Fire Island.

Photos 8 & 9: Davis Park post Nor’easter (April 2007) and
Post-construction (April 1, 2009)

P:/New York/7300.35 Construction Services Fire Island/Project Description/2009 FIRE ISLAND PROJECT_April_13_2009.doc

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.

Fire Islanders agreed to a significant tax hike to pay for adding sand to adjacent public beaches for the third time since the storms of the early 1990s. The overall project, now nearing completion, will cost $23-$25 million, including the cost of environmental monitoring. It will result in adding 1.8 million cubic yards of sand in front of the participating communities.

At the property owners’ request, Brookhaven and Islip issued bonds to pay for the project. The bonds are backed by new taxes levied by community Erosion Control Taxing Districts. The bonds will take five or more years to pay off during which taxes on some properties will be more than double. In order to participate in the project, the Fire Island villages of Saltaire and Ocean Beach made similar arrangements with their taxpayers. All the beaches receiving sand are public and located in the Fire Island National Seashore.

The prime contractor for the projects is Weeks Marine, Inc., of Cranford, N.J. The projects were designed by Coastal Planning & Engineering, Inc. (CPE) of Boca Raton, Fla. Steven Keehn of CPE led a tour of the project, which is to be completed by April 25. Working with CP&E on project permitting, oversight and implementation was Land Use Ecological Services of Riverhead. Fire Island Ferries Inc. provided transport to Ocean Beach from Bay Shore for the tour.

Lead agency on the nourishment project was the Fire Island National Seashore, which is headquartered in Patchogue.

Fire Island Association president Gerard Stoddard said that property owners hoped the additional sand would provide protection for the beaches until a more comprehensive project could be constructed by New York State and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We don’t know what that project will consist of,” Mr. Stoddard said. “But it seems pretty clear that the answer to sea level rise over the next 50 years will be to protect coastal communities by making beaches wider and higher,” he added.

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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.