FHBECD Report 8/01

FAIR HARBOR BEACH EROSION CONTROL DISTRICT - August 2001 Status Report

The Fair Harbor Beach is in poor shape. At high tide, there is little or no beach, with water coming up to the newly installed dune fencing. Much of the sand deposited during our previous 1994 replenishment is gone. We are greatly concerned that a severe winter could yield further erosion and the possible loss of homes.

Planning and permitting for another replenishment is well underway. Fair Harbor, Dunewood and Saltaire signed a contract in mid June with Coastal Planning and Engineering (CPE) to prepare plans, seek permits, and oversee a second replenishment. CPE managed our last replenishment and has been doing our annual beach monitoring. CPE has subcontracted the seeking of permits to Land Use Associates (LUA), another firm that we have used previously.

CPE will come to the community to present its draft plan for replenishment on Sunday, September 16. This will provide an opportunity for Fair Harbor residents to ask questions and comment on possible changes. After the three communities are satisfied with the plan, LUA will submit permit applications to execute the plan to various Federal and State agencies, including NYS DEC, and Fire Island Seashore. When cost information becomes available, hopefully this fall, we will seek approval from the community to issue bonds and proceed with the actual replenishment. LUA expects that it will take approximately one year, from the time of application, to obtain all permits. We are exploring possible ways to speed this. Following obtaining permits and financing, the replenishment will proceed as soon as possible consistent with CPE advice, environmental considerations, and what weather permits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. The beach is in terrible shape. Why is this all taking so long?

A. A number of factors contribute to delay.

1) The need to follow competitive bidding processes in selecting contractors, which entails writing a Statement of Work, soliciting bids, reviewing proposals and selecting a winner.

2) Need for the three communities, Saltaire, Dunewood, and Fair Harbor to agree on contractor, contract, and project details. Project urgency is not uniform across the three communities. A number of months were spent negotiating and finalizing the contract to a point where it was acceptable to all communities.

3) Permits take time to obtain. A number of agencies overlap in jurisdiction over our project. Our contract with CPE explicitly lists permits from the NYS DEC (Article 25 Tidal Wetlands); NYS Department of State - Coastal Consistency Certification; US Army Core of Engineers; NYS Office of General Services (Borrow Site Authorization); National Park Service Special Use Permit for sand deposition on Federal lands if applicable; National Park Service - Construction equipment access points for project implementation. Some agencies routinely circulate permit applications such as ours to other

agencies (for example Fish and Wildlife) for comment. These other agencies can request further information. Although we believe that most agencies will respect the need for our project and its urgency, some agencies assign low priority to property preservation or are reportedly not likely to be supportive of our project.

4) The replenishment must be timed with environmental concerns, availability of equipment, and weather.

We are exploring ways to speed permitting, but if the LUA estimate holds, we will not have permits to proceed until fall of 2002.

Q. How much will the project cost and how will it be paid for?

A. Permitting and project management will cost approximately $180,000 of which Fair Harbor’s share will be approximately $61,000. This will be paid from funds left over from our last replenishment. Sand deposition cost will depend on borrow site selection, and ability to share equipment mobilization cost, which is a significant fraction of the total. We expect to have cost estimates from CPE this fall. The sand deposition will be paid for by a bond issue, where the principal and interest will be paid for by property taxes by the Fair Harbor Beach Erosion Control District. Since current bond payments extend through 2003, we anticipate a one or two years overlap period during which will be paying for both the last and current project.

Q. Are any other costs expected?

A. It is possible that there will be additional money. Both permitting and replenishment are subject to uncertainties. For example, we do not yet know if we will be required to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement or whether any legal fees will be required in obtaining permits. We expect that these costs, if necessary, will be small relative to the actual sand deposition.

Q. How did we choose to join with Saltaire and Dunewood? Are more communities interested?

A. We are joining with Saltaire and Dunewood to save costs and obtain a more effective project. We have previous experience with these communities; they are ready to proceed, and have the infrastructure to pay. We would be happy to add additional contiguous areas, provided that they do not cause delay. Ken Cohen, the Dunewood Dune District Commissioner, has contacted other communities within Islip, but, to date, none has come forward to join. Our CPE contract allows other communities to join and has provision for cost sharing, but this must happen soon.

Q. How will cost be apportioned amongst the three communities?

A. Planning and permitting costs are being apportioned according to lineal feet of beach possessed by each community. Based on this, Saltaire will pay one half, Fair Harbor one third, and Dunewood one sixth. Apportionment of the payment for deposited sand has not yet been decided.

Q. How did we pick CPE to plan and oversee our project?

A. An initial list of seven firms was formed based on attendance and presentations at beach erosion conferences over a several year period. A Statement of Work was written and each of the seven firms was invited to submit a proposal and bid for our project. Three firms responded. Of the three, the CPE proposal was by far the most attractive based on price, familiarity with our beach, and familiarity with studies done for the Interim Project. CPE will use these Interim Project studies as much as possible for our permit application. We have had positive experience with CPE in our previous project and our annual beach monitoring.

Q. The Fire Island Inlet is dredged periodically. Can we take advantage of the periodic visitation of the dredge to save mobilization cost?

A. We will try. CPE’s advice is to focus on getting permits and financing as soon as possible and then look for opportunities to save on costs when we have a date at which we will be ready. We can then see what equipment mobilization sharing opportunities are available. CPE cautions that sharing may require delaying our project to synchronize with another and may not be worth it.

We are also planning to explore periodic maintenance synchronized with dredge visits. However, periodic maintenance requires an open ended permit, which CPE advises is much harder to get, entailing more scrutiny and delay by the various agencies than a one time permit. Because of the urgency of our situation, CPE advises that we initially seek a one time permit to get some sand on the beach as soon as possible, and then follow up with an application for an open ended permit if we seek to do periodic replenishment.

Q. Where are we going to get the sand?

A. Our CPE contract involves investigation of two potential borrow sites. One of these is an area some distance off the coast of Cherry Grove, which was used in our previous project, and was also proposed in the Fire Island Interim Plan. A second nearby borrow site exists off of Saltaire-Fair Harbor, which may allow cost savings because its nearby nature allows an economical dredging process, but it may not be usable.

Q. What is contained in our annual beach monitoring and how can I see the report?

A. Annual monitoring is performed by CPE each fall and a report is produced giving the onshore and off shore sand profiles taken every few hundred feet from Dunewood to Saltaire. CPE calculates the amount of sand lost and remaining relative to our original 1994 project and makes a recommendation on any needed action. Until 1999, our beach was in good shape, with many areas having even more sand than after the 1994 project. CPE believes that this was because of a large aggregation of sand that moved down the beach from east to west following the 1992/93 storm. Recall that Lonelyville and Dunewood beaches were very wide during the 1994 - 96 period. Since then, the aggregation has passed, and sand amounts have moved back to normal. Until 1999, there was little to report from beach monitoring, other than the positive state of the beach. The November 1999 report, however, revealed that Dunewood and eastern Fair Harbor had lost a great deal of sand, especially offshore. CPE recommended that we consider seeking permits for a possible replenishment, because they would take at least a year to obtain, would be good to have, and would not cost too much. This was reported at Fair Harbor Community Association meetings during the spring of 2000 and planning for a replenishment project was initiated.

The CPE monitoring reports fill a small loose-leaf binder and are too voluminous for community wide mailing. Because of heightened interest, we will reproduce a number of copies, which we will be available for loan from members of the FHBECD Committee. We will continue to provide summaries in community mailings and at FH Community Association meetings.

Q. How did our 1994 replenishment project perform? Did we expect that we would have to do this again in eight to ten years?

A. The 1994 project has performed close to the CPE prediction. In 1993, CPE predicted that approximately 95% of the sand would be gone in ten years. Performance has been uneven. The eastern portion of the project area in Dunewood has lost virtually all of the original sand volume, whereas the western part in Saltaire still has much of the original sand volume. This is to be expected. CPE has indicated that a project in our area is likely to fail first in the eastern portion.

Although residents tend to focus on the beach and dune, which is the sand that is visible, much of the CPE focus is on the sand volume immediately offshore, which is much larger, and which ultimately governs onshore processes. The 1999 beach monitoring report revealed the heavy sand loss offshore in Dunewood, which was subsequently followed by rapid erosion of the on-shore beach and dune during 2000 and 2001.

Q. In view of how long this is taking, why didn’t we start earlier?

A. Beach monitoring reports and visual inspection of the beach did not show need for a project in 1998 and earlier. Support for spending tax dollars for replenishment was not there. As soon as the need and community support for replenishment became evident, the planning process was initiated.

Q. Can we declare that this is an emergency to speed permitting?

A. Formal emergency declaration requires the President of the United States. We have not yet experienced the loss of life or property to support this. CPE has already taken photographs of some homes at risk to be used to make the case of the urgency of our situation in the permitting.

Q. What happens next? Is there anything that the community can do to help?

A. CPE will come to Fair Harbor to present its draft proposal on Sunday, September 16. There may be options affecting project cost, risk, appearance, and time frame that we will need to decide rapidly. We are working with the Town of Islip in preparing the necessary bond issue. When costs become available, we will need an indication that Fair Harbor homeowners support the project. After permit applications are submitted with the finalized plan, members of the community will need to contact elected representatives to generate support. Expect to hear more on this at the appropriate time.

Erica Fried, FHBECD Deputy Commissioner

Frank Burns, Jerome Feder, Nevio Maggiora, Wells Newell, Claire Walsh, Committee Members