Dredging Wickham Creek
February 5, 2008 by Paul Birman · Leave a Comment
This letter was received from David Allison
Note that SoutholdVOICE has taken no position on the issue that he raises, nor does Trustee Dave Bergen speak on our behalf. Our role is educational and in that spirit, Mr. Allison’s letter is published.
Ladies and Gentlemen
On Friday night I caught a brief portion of a recent
town board meeting on Channel 22 and heard Dave Bergen
give an update on the dredging of Southold creeks. I
don’t know who Mr. Bergen represents but I suspect he
may have something to do with your organization. An
organization of which I am also a member.
During his talk Mr. Bergen mentioned that he (and the
group he represents since he say “we”) were trying to
amend the permit to dredge Wickham Creek in Cutchogue
to have the dredged material placed “to the southwest
of Wickham Creek”.
I am a Commissioner of the Cutchogue/New Suffolk Parks
District and a resident of Fleet’s Neck. On behalf of
the Parks district and on behalf of every resident of
Fleets Neck I vigorously oppose such an amendment.
The Army Corps of Engineers specifically states that
dredged material should be deposited in the direction
of the litoral drift, which in the case of Wickham’s
Creek is to the East.
This is extremely important in this situation in order
to preserve one of the finest beaches in Cutchogue,
the Cutchogue/New Suffolk Parks District Beach at the
end of Pequash Ave.
Over the years dredged material from Wickham’s Creek
has been placed to the West. The result is the beach
at our park has deteriorated and in fact has lost
almost two feet in depth and at high tide the
available beach area has diminished to something less
than 20 feet. And this is a beach that is used by
hundreds of local residents all summer long.
To the west, the beach is protected by a 50 foot groin
on the western edge of the creek entrance and as a
result the beach area to the west has grown
proportionately. In addition there is a 30 foot high
mound of excavated dredged sand stretching a good 100
feet along the southern edge of the wetlands, all of
which is privately owned land. Ostensibly this was
done to protect the wetlands from severe storms, not
whithstanding the fact that the wetlands have survived
in their present state for hundreds of years.
Our playgrounds and beaches are just as important to
our lifestyle as is the preservation of the wetlands.
In this case the scale has tipped too far in favor of
“saving the wetlands”. There is no urgent need to
change the dredging permit but there is an urgent need
to protect our beach at Pequash Park.
If your organization has input to this we would
appreciate it if our message could be heard and this
message be passed on to Mr. Bergen.
Thank you
David Allison
631-902-2603
I spoke with David today (2/5). We had a good conversation. I explained to him that I was speaking to the Town Board in my role as Trustee, not representing Southold VOICE. I do not beleive that SV was even mentioned at the meeting. Anyway, I explained that the permits for Wickham Creek state that the material must go to the east, but that the TB Dredging Advisory Committee and the Trustees were looking for a one time amendment to place the material in front of the dunes to the West, between the bay and Wickham Creek. These dunes experienced severe erosion last April. David will ask the Fleets Neck Property Owners to oppose this amendment.
I would like to invite Mr. Allison to visit our shoreline with me so we can discuss and view the realities on the ground as some of his assumptions are not accurate. I routinely kayak both our shores and try to look at the situation in an even-handed way. Sand is a precious resource and shore remediation needs to have a flexible, needs-based sharing strategy so that both sides of the creek are adequately addressed. The real solution to littoral cell destruction and shoreline erosion (as is the case for the shoreline to the west of the creek) is a systemic solution which includes: semi-permeable rock structures to entrain sand and dampen wave energy vs. non-permeable vertical structures. This is coupled with sand remediation. These are the approaches put in places on the Chesapeake, Puget Sound, Pamlico Sound and others with significant success. Unfortunately NYS is hopelessly behind and inactive in protecting it’s shore with pro-active systemic solutions. They leave it to the home owners and shoreline associations to play tug-of-war. It’s all about sharing the resources we have (sand) and instrumenting proven techniques (remediation, wave energy absorption, semi-permeable structures) while replacing non-permeable structures that starve shorelines and destroy littoral cells. All the shore lines in Cutchogue Harbor are inter-dependent and must be addressed as a whole. (I’m in the phone book and I welcome the potential of forming a Cutchogue Harbor Stakeholders group to seeks ways to address our shared systemic erosion problems).