The Asharoken Village Board on Long Island’s North Shore has rejected a proposed federal plan to restore a heavily eroded strip of beach that connects some residents to the mainland.
The Board said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project would have forced some private beaches to become public, and nearly all residents, and the entire board, say the project’s $20 million cost was too much to bear.
Meanwhile, a local fishing group has pitched a new plan to save the beach.
Thomas Catalanotto, with the Huntington Anglers Club, one village over from Asharoken, says the solution they submitted to the Asharoken mayor has been used in Michigan and Florida, and once installed, never has to be replaced.
“Undercurrent stabilizers, which are basically these tubes that they put perpendicular to the beach that block the current, drop sand down and then the tubes force the current up against the beach, and they redeposit the sand up on the beach.”
Catalanotto says their plan also means the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won’t be dredging for sand in the Long Island Sound to bolster dunes on the beach.
He says dredging would destroy marine life near Asharoken, and his plan protects both homeowners and the environment.
