Posted on March 7, 2022
The money is meant to help protect the coastline against dangerous weather events after Superstorm Sandy ravaged Long Island in 2012.
OAKDALE, NY — The county has earmarked $1 million in funding towards coastal resiliency efforts, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced on Wednesday with Legislator Bridget Fleming (D—Sag Harbor).
Bellone also announced the Project Advisory Committee (PAC), which will identify key areas of impact and will work to develop the project. The committee, comprised of dozens of stakeholders across the county, held its first meeting on Wednesday. Fleming introduced legislation in 2019 to fund coastal resiliency planning efforts, and the PAC will now decide how to spend the funds.
“Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc across Long Island and highlighted the vulnerabilities of our shoreline to extreme weather,” Bellone said. “It is no longer if another extreme weather event will impact our region, but rather when. This funding will allow us to move forward with critical projects that will better protect our communities from dangerous weather conditions.”
Superstorm Sandy hit Long Island in fall 2012. Bellone recalled the National Weather Service telling him that people on Fire Island were in mortal danger because of the storm. Bellone called it one of the most “chilling” moments as the county executive. Since then, Long Island has seen multiple extreme weather events, Bellone said.
The goal of the county’s Coastal Resiliency Plan is to create a Suffolk-wide understanding of the scope, location, and character of climate change impacts, including potential economic losses. The plan also aims to develop recommendations to protect infrastructure and keep losses to a minimum.
Flooding, extreme precipitation events, and storm surges are expected to happen more often in Suffolk. These bad weather events are also expected to become more severe because of climate change and the rise in sea level, according to the county.
“We are facing ever-increasing impacts to our coastal communities because of climate change,” Fleming said. “Rising sea levels and increased severe storms threaten these communities with significant economic losses through flooding, coastal erosion, and damage to our roadways and infrastructure. With this substantial investment, we have the opportunity to take bold and thoughtful action to mitigate climate change impacts with a focus on nature-based solutions.”
The project will help a team of experts prevent future emergencies, increase public safety, reduce flooding, erosion, and damage, and also save taxpayer dollars, Fleming said.
The $1 million in funding will be used for projects designed to reduce expenses caused by repeated flood damage; bolster waterfront access points to withstand flooding; and make changes that will be needed because of the projected increase in frequency and severity of storms, as well as the impacts from rising sea levels.
Projects will be prioritized based on long-term cost-benefit analyses, including potential impacts on people and nature. The Suffolk County Resiliency Planning Handbook, a toolkit for assessing properties and assets, will be created.
The $1 million is coming out of the county’s Wastewater Infrastructure Fund, which was created as part of the 2022 Operating Budget. The Wastewater Infrastructure Fund includes $125 million in new funding to significantly advance Suffolk’s Reclaim Our Water Initiative, advance the county’s response to environmental hazards, and invest in projects to improve coastal resiliency.
The coastal resiliency funding complements ongoing projects to protect the county’s waterways, including the county’s Septic Improvement Program, which is designed to stop and reverse nitrogen pollution by eliminating old cesspools and septic systems through the installation of Innovative Alternative. The Suffolk County Coastal Resiliency Initiative (SCCRI) is an expansion of sewer infrastructure that will build three separate projects to connect nearly 6,000 parcels along the county’s South Shore to sewers.
Suffolk County is home to nearly 1,000 miles of coastline, which are critical to the economy, tourism industry, and residents’ livelihood. Coastlines and coastal communities in Suffolk have been negatively impacted in recent years because of the rise in sea levels and increase in storms. Impacts include the destruction of property and beaches, shoaling of navigation channels, flooding, degrading of wetlands, and habitat loss.
“When planning future infrastructure projects or improvements, we must consider the effects of seal level rise and coastal erosion, which are inevitable and complex,” Legislator Al Krupski (D—Riverhead) said. “We face some challenging decisions in the years ahead, as we will most likely experience more intense and frequent storms in Suffolk County.”
