Posted on November 27, 2018
Two Plum Island residents will travel to Washington, D.C., next month with Mayor Donna Holaday and state Sen. Bruce Tarr to try to raise awareness of coastal erosion problems locally to federal officials.
Bob Connors and Marc Sarkady of the Plum Island Foundation (PIF), will join the Newburyport mayor and Tarr in Washington Dec. 5 for a day of high level meetings with the Massachusetts congressional delegation and representatives from the Army Corp of Engineers.
With donations from over 40 Plum Island residents, PIF was able to contract with a consulting group in Washington, which set up the day-long series of meetings. Annual cost for the consultants is about $25,000, Connors said.
The local contingent plans to detail Plum Island’s eroding coastline in meetings with federal officials. At a recent selectmen’s meeting, Connors presented town leaders with information about the pending trip and a fact sheet the team plans to use as a jumping-off point for discussion.
The trip will begin with an hour-long meeting at Army Corps headquarters with the acting chief of planning and rapid intervention team leader. The group will offer an overview of erosion at various points on Plum island. The 8-mile-long barrier island is comprised of three sectors – Reservation Terrace to the north; Turnpike North in the middle; and Turnpike South to the south. Just north of the island, the Merrimack River converges with the Atlantic Ocean.
The Army Corps designed and built jetties at the northern and southern ends of the river mouth in 1828 to assist commercial fishing. Although the Coast Guard at one time maintained a lighthouse and station at the island’s northern end, the area was deeded to the state when the Coast Guard abandoned its base.
Over the past decade, the shoreline has eroded on average of more than 13 feet per year with cumulative erosion totaling several hundred feet in the Reservation Terrace region, according to the fact sheet. Storm surge has topped the dunes, flooding basements and roads, and also has impacted a beachfront parking lot at the center of the island – at times preventing residents from leaving the island and restricting emergency vehicle access.
The Army Corps is proposing to dredge the Merrimack in the coming year and possibly move some of the dredged sand onto the Reservation Terrace shoreline. However, although currents in that area can cause significant erosion, it remains unclear to some former and current Corps of Engineers personnel whether there is adequate flood risk management benefits to justify cost-sharing, the fact sheet says.
In 2011 the Army Corps implemented the first sediment management project in the nation for the island’s northern coastline. Although successful initially, “the sand it brought to the island has eroded over the past 12 to 18 months to a nearshore bar which studies report may increase wave focusing and exacerbate erosion,” the fact sheet stated.
The group in Washington will also explore concerns and opportunities of a state-proposed beneficial use pilot program for the northern coastal facing section of the island that would take sand dredged from Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire to use for nearshore placement on Plum Island. “Previous nearshore placements from the Merrimack have caused shoaling immediately off the coastline that may have had an impact on the erosion of the adjacent shore,” the fact sheet says.
The town has entered a cost-sharing agreement with the Army Corps to study the shoreline from the mainland to the coast, south of the Parker River Wildlife Refuge, an area that has seen significant erosion in recent years.
The group also plans to meet with U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton. The meetings will focus on the need to deal with both short-term projects as well as take a more holistic look at the island’s erosion to develop a long-term plan.
PIF is proposing development of future water resource projects to study the jetty system and coastal dynamics in hopes of providing residents with alternative ways of addressing continued problems on the island. Since 2008 the foundation has raised more than $200,000 in support of its mission to nourish and preserve the beaches and waterways, protect the tax base, ensure the integrity of the sewer and water systems, and maintain public access and enjoyment of the island and its beaches, according to information from the foundation.
Source: Gloucester Daily Times
