May 14, 2015
Sea level rise is accelerating, according to recent scientific reports, threatening coastal regions around the world. One of the places where sea level is rising the fastest is on the East Coast of the US. Traditional beach communities on the East End are already seeing battles heat up on how to deal with it.
Waterfront property owners want to hold back the sea by building hard structures like sea walls and revetments. But ocean scientists point to abundant evidence that those structures cause significant erosion along the shoreline, affecting both public beaches and adjacent homes.
Despite this, The Army Corp of Engineers is scheduled to install 14,000 giant sand-filled geotubes on a 3100 foot stretch of Montauk beach in the fall.
The Corps claims the geotubes are not hard structures, but a recently filed lawsuit begs to differ.
Sustainable East End talked with Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O about the lawsuit and efforts to stop this project.
