Erosion
The condition of our sound side beaches has been a topic that I have been meaning to address since the very beginning of this forum. In fact, I listed it as one of the issues to be addressed in my very first entry. Unfortunately, there have been so many other issues since then that I have not had time to address it properly and so I will attempt to do so now.
Our beaches have been the single most significant factor in Bayville's creation as a community, history, development, economy and quality of life, yet they have been allowed to deteriorate to the point where some no longer exist. The erosion at Center Island Beach has destroyed the entire eastern end of the beach and dune and Ransom Beach (from here on referred to as the "Ransom Sea Wall") simply no longer exists. This threatens both the quality of life and the economic viability of an entire community, and yet no significant effort has been made to save them. As the beaches disappear, so do the people who use them. The result can be seen in the vacant buildings throughout Bayville that once housed thriving businesses and as these properties deteriorate, the area becomes even less likely to attract outsiders.
Several years ago I attended an informational meeting at the Bayville Intermediate School, regarding a study being done by the Army Corp of Engineers. They had just received a grant (I believe it was $5,000,000.00) to study beach erosion on the north shore and ways to address it. To my knowledge they have not been heard from since. It may be time for us to request an update on how that money has been spent.
Jeff has put some photos that I have taken on the following web page, but to really understand just how bad this problem has become, you need to take a walk at each site. Just make sure you don't go at high tide.
http://smalltownblog.com/bayvilleblog/Beach%20Erosion/
At Center Island, the beach and dune have been eroding at an alarming rate. Photos 1 & 2 show the erosion and the ill-conceived attempt to fix the problem. Over the years, as the beach and dune has disappeared, they have been replaced by an ever longer sea wall constructed of steel, rocks, broken concrete and a guard rail that appears to be designed primarily to stop people who have the audacity to pull off to the side of the road to enjoy the view. In fact, all of this has gone a long way towards destroying the view, and the aesthetics of this once beautiful piece of roadway have been completely ruined. More importantly, it has done nothing to stop the erosion, but appears to have accelerated it. The wall is obviously intended to protect only the roadway, leaving the beach to fend for itself. The lifeguard building has been so undermined that it is in danger of collapsing into the Sound (photo 3). The erosion extends all the way past the west end of the beach and may soon endanger the private homes in that area.
Photo 4 shows what I am told are markers that have been set up to mark to rate of erosion over the last several months. They were set up at the front edge of the dune and new rows set periodically as it washed away. I took Photo 5 to show how the vegetation on a natural dune system catches and traps wind-blown sand. As you can see, over the years, the built up sand has nearly buried the fence. These photos were all taken prior to the latest Nor'easter. Photos 6, 7 and 8 were taken after and show further damage to the dune.
Photos 9, 10 and 11 were all taken at the Ransom Sea Wall. This sea wall was constructed a few years ago, after losing several sections of the concrete curb that border the parking lot. So little consideration was given to saving the beach that no access way was even provided to allow people to get to the water from the parking lot. If you look closely at the pictures you will see that the sea wall has accelerated the erosion at the bottom of the wall and at the end of the wall, where a futile attempt was made to protect that section from the oncoming storm by placing boulders with a payloader. It is obvious that a decision was made to allow the beach to disappear, leaving us with a municipal parking lot and a playground.
Unfortunately, far more resources have been devoted to saving asphalt and concrete than have been devoted to saving our beaches and dunes. The solutions that have been attempted over the years have been conjured up by engineers whose specialty is designing structures made of concrete and steel and, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It is beyond time for the people who have been making these misguided decisions to admit that the current course of action cannot work and look towards an alternative solution.
Dunes are the natural way to control erosion. In a natural system the dunes, and more importantly the vegetation that grow on them, catch sand that is constantly being blown across the beach. In this way they grow higher and larger. When a storm takes some of the sand from the dune, the dune is replenished naturally and so there is an ebb and flow to the dune. In the case of Center Island beach, the dune is unable to grow on the backside because there is a road there, and the dune became too narrow to catch the blowing sand. Because of this, and the loss of vegetation from people walking on it, the dune has been unable to replenish itself. We have all seen the windblown sand that builds up on the roadway behind the dune and is swept up and discarded. Years ago, the Town of Oyster Bay would install several rows of snow fence along the front of the dune to aid the dune in catching the sand and rebuilding itself, but in recent years even this simple attempt at maintenance has been abandoned.
At this point, the problem is far beyond a simple maintenance task. The dune and beach east of the lifeguard building either no longer exists or is so depleted that it is no longer functioning. This area needs to be completely rebuilt. This is not an easy or inexpensive undertaking and would almost certainly involve dredging an inordinate amount of sand from the underwater portions of the beach. The rebuilt dune would then need to be replanted, protected and maintained by replacing any sand along the front that is lost and taking measures to protect it each winter. The dune to the west of the building is still wide enough and large enough to function properly, but only if it is replenished along the beach side of the dune and then protected and maintained. In comparison to rebuilding, this is by far the cheaper and easier solution and should be undertaken immediately.
To continue along the path that has been followed in the past will result in the total loss of our beaches, and an erosion of the economic viability of Bayville's commercial enterprises and our quality of life.
Barry E. Lamb
Bayville
My family first started coming to Bayville for the summer in 1961, and I live here full-time now. In the President's streets area the erosion is non-existent. It seems that the sand and gravel that is disappearing on the east side of the crescent beach may be slowly and surely accumulating on our western side. After the famous storms in the early 1990's, Pine Island Park Association began a concerted effort to build up and protect the dunes here. We put telephone poles on the Boulevard side of the dunes to shore them up, planted sea grass and low brush on the dunes to help hold the sand and gravel in place, and we put wire fences to keep people from walking on the dunes – which would kill or impede the growth of the plantings on the dunes. We also replant sea grass annually on the dunes. All in all, it's been a huge success. I can personally attest to the fact that our beach is actually higher and more secure than it was 45 years ago, and I have the photos to prove it. If the dunes on the east side of town had been protected and built up we would not be seeing the erosion we see now. Also, the placement of man-made jetties only makes the erosion worse, just look at what's happened at Ransom beach since the jetties were placed east of there years ago. It may not be too late to start building up the dunes on the east side of the crescent beach and remove those man-made jetties to the east of Ransom beach.
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The Pine Island project is a great example, as is the dune at Bayville's Soundside Beach. This is exactly the type of solution that should have been undertaken at C.I. Beach years ago. Instead it has been totally neglected and no effort at all is made until the roadway is about to fall into the sea- then suddenly funds are found to protect the road. Wouldn't it be better to spend that money protecting the beach and letting the beach and dune protect the roadway? How come a group of private residents manage to do it properly but when it is left to government it becomes such a mess?
I have just two suggestions to make regarding the Pine Island dune. The first is you need to be diligent about stopping residents from making their own pathway to the beach or walking on to it from the beach side. These areas that have no vegetation will be the first places that the dune fails when you most need it. The other is that you should install snow fence along the beach side of the dune in the winter. The amount of fine sand that it catches each winter will amaze you.
Barry
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Barry,
Thanks for the suggestions. As to the few bad apples who have made paths through the dunes for their own convenience, the Pine Island Park Association, of which I am Vice President, has tried to stop them unsuccessfully through peaceful means, but we failed. These few people are belligerent about their right to do what they please on what they wrongfully consider their personal property. We do not have a legal basis to enforce the protection of the dunes, but we're working to find another solution. As to the snow fence, it's really not needed here. We have almost 100% gravel on our beach, so the wind does not blow any sand over the dunes. I live right on the water and can confidently state there has never been any erosion problem from the wind alone. I have never observed any sand accumulate anywhere around here, we just don't have enough of it.
John
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Maybe they should contact this company for a solution:
http://www.advancedcoastaltechnologies.com/
Their ad appeared in the Google ads box in the sidebar.
Barry
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This weeks OB Enterprise Pilot has coverage of the erosion problem at Center Island:
http://www.antonnews.com/oysterbayenterprisepilot/2007/05/11/news/gregory.html
There was also a short mention in Newsday (I believe it was Sunday) regarding the demolition of the lifeguard building.
Barry
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Not sure where this should go, I just read with interest an article in the OB Enterprise Pilot re: the reclassification of the FEMA flood zone maps. Barry or Jeff, any insight on this? I'm concerned that Bayville (or at least the building inspector is using Gloria as a high water mark, shouldn't we be looking at 1938 as well? How is it that Oyster Bays memorial parking field is now in the 100yr flood plain, yet West Harbor Rd is now removed? Is that because West Harbor was artificially raised with fill years ago? (before the wetlands classifications??)
Here's the link to the article. http://www.antonnews.com/oysterbayenterprisepilot/2008/07/18/news/fema.html
I an glad to see that the reclassifications will require community support and look forward to the open forum I hope the village will have with the residents.
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I am replying on this thread to get the dialog under the proper heading.
Lisa,
If you read my "Erosion" entry above, it explains what I think should be done. It is often the very infrastructure that we put in place to save our precious parking lots that accelerate the erosion of the beach. The force of the water is merely concentrated right along the hard structure and the structure itself becomes undermined. If we were to spend the same amount of money to maintain the dunes and beach before the damage gets to the roadway, we could preserve both the beaches and the roadway.
Barry
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Barry, I understand what you are saying, but I honestly don't see how you can un-do what has been done. From a practical standpoint, people need to be able to get in and out of Bayville and Centre Island. Maintenance of existing seawalls should be the main priority to make sure they DON'T get undermined.
>>>>>>>>>If we were to spend the same amount of money to maintain the dunes and beach before the damage gets to the roadway>>>>>>>>>
But what if dunes never existed in the locations you are referring to ? (which in my memory, they haven't) If nature never deposited dunes in the first place, what is the likelihood of man-made dunes deterring the advance of the Sound?
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Dear Mr. Taylor,
As a former resident of the President St. I understand your frustration with the "bad apples" I know this because I lived on the block with them. Now I hear they built their own bridge to get to the beach. Do these people pay their yearly dues? And can you charge them more for not complying with the rules of the Pine Island Association, or for the plants that they trample every year, maybe if you hit them in their wallets they might be a little bit more considerate of the year round families that are around for clean ups and planting days. I always found them to be very inconsiderate of the beaches. Just a thought. I also grew up n Bayville and I hate to see what is happening to our beaches. I am very proud of Pine Island's care and dedication to the save the beaches, I personally planted many plants on the beach with my family and they look great. Good Luck I know it's a challenge.
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I felt bad when I saw those pictures. How did they let these happened, do they know that this beach was a really good attraction for the outsiders? When I saw the wall, I thought that it was too unsafe. The government should make a move regarding on this topic. What happened to the budget? Ahh. Why are these people so unkind? The community should be aware, too. People was not able to go on that beach just to see the sunset, to enjoy swimming, to have their tan skin. When it will be happen again?
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