Westport in Brief - May 2, 2021

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Sunday, May 2, 2021

Quick Article Index . . .

East Beach study to be revised.

Friday, April 23, 2021

Above: Resident Russell Plamondon points to the spot where his neighbor's trailer used to be parked.

Hurricane Irene swept everything away.

By Robert Barboza

Special to EverythingWestport.com

Is the road’s future headed for a total washout?

Click Here to read the article about Hurricane Irene’s willful destruction of East Beach Road

The East Beach Corridor Vulnerability Study Committee recently reviewed the draft report of a study assessing the neighborhood’s risks from the growing impacts of climate change, and asked its consultants to revise the projections for how much of a rise in sea levels the town can expect in the next few decades before submitting the final report to local and state officials.

East Beach Road is an emergency exit route for residents living south of the Route 88 bridge, which if disabled, would trap those residents if a hurricane wiped out the vulnerable East Beach Road.

The town contracted for the climate change vulnerability assessment by the Woods Hole Group in order to develop short- and long-term plans for dealing with the long list of issues related to the likelihood of a continuing rise in sea levels and the increasing frequency and severity of major storms damaging infrastructure and coastal properties. The study was funded by a state Municipal Vulnerability Program (MVP) grant.

The final report will include the consultants’ recommendations for local planning to elevate or otherwise protect East Beach Road from repeated storm washouts; upgrade utility services in the area; develop better emergency access and egress plans for the barrier beach area; and consider a dune nourishment program to offset beach erosion.

The draft report recommendations included the immediate establishment of a town climate resiliency committee to start the local planning process for dealing with climate-related issues and funding those initiatives. It also suggested the development of a long-term plan for the eventual “managed retreat and relocation” of homes and residents from the East Beach Corridor when sea levels get too high.

The draft also identified a number of sources of state and federal funds which could be used to finance the town’s efforts to combat sea level rise and related climate change issues. It also makes clear that state and federal authorities will not allow “coastal armoring” of barrier beach areas with seawalls or breakwaters that could protect roads, homes, or other resources.

Much of the debate at the April 21 study committee meeting focused on comments provided by local reviewers of the draft report. Former selectman Michael Sullivan submitted a multi-page commentary that challenged the state’s steep projections for sea level rises in coming decades, as well as the data on historic erosion trends for East Beach.

For example, the state projected the likely 20-year rise in sea level for the period ending in 2030 would be one and a quarter feet, R. Michael Sullivan noted, while the actual rise during the first decade was less than two inches. Those state straight-line upward projected increases in water levels used by consultants are just not realistic, based on actual local data, he suggested.

Above: Now What? 750 feet of East Beach Road looks like a scene from an apocalyptic future. Completely destroyed by Irene's wrath, the shattered road has thrown the town into a quandary as to what to do next.

Click Here to read the article about Hurricane Irene’s destruction of East Beach Road

“I don’t think we want to have a report that’s predicting a foot and a quarter sea

level rise by 2030, and be halfway through that period and only seeing an inch and a half rise,” R. Michael Sullivan said at the virtual meeting. “It takes away our credibility,”

and creates doubt about the validity of the recommendations based on those projections, he argued.

Lead modeler for the Woods Hole Group Nasser Brahim agreed that the state’s projections for a highly probable 2.3-foot rise in sea levels by 2070 were a little unlikely to occur, but the state was planning for worst case scenarios so as not to be caught unprepared by accelerating conditions.

Brahim said he would revise the report’s charts to show the local data was much lower than the projected rises, but noted that the state’s high projections did not significantly impact the report’s recommendations for local actions to be considered.

Study Committee Chair John Bullard said the report’s projections, ranging from conservative estimates to worst case scenarios for water level rises were endlessly debatable, but not the main point of the study. “Educating people about this issue – about sea level rise and storms – is important... It will happen someday,” whether it’s in 2030, 2050, or 2070, he said.

The state has twice failed to take action in the past; first nixing the installation of a breakwater riprap off East Beach Road to minimize beach washout, and denying repeated requests to address the causeway, either through replacing the roadway with a trestle bridge, or to add multiple culverts under it to allow tidal flow through Buzzards Bay north of Gooseberry Island.

Any local efforts to protect the beach, roadways, and homes in the corridor “will take longer than you think,” so the timeline’s accuracy is not critical, Bullard said. “Nature happens quicker than you think, and our response – whether it’s government or society – happens slower than you think. Raising road levels or doing something with the causeway will take longer than you think, and sea level rise will happen quicker than you think,” he suggested.

Planning Board Vice Chair Robert Daylor also weighed in on the water level rise projections, and agreed that “precise estimates” of the water levels will not really impact local plans for elevating East Beach Road, protecting utility services, or rebuilding sand dunes through a beach nourishment program.

State and federal agencies will use the state sea rise projections to evaluate and rate any grant applications from the town, so challenging or changing those projections in the MVP report will only hurt Westport’s chances of getting funds for projects, he suggested. “It is what the state is using, and what they will use to judge any proposals that we have,” Daylor said.

Sullivan also advocated for changes to the draft report’s section on East Beach erosion, suggesting that some historical data was inaccurate, and did not consider the impact that the construction of the causeway to Gooseberry Island during World War II had on the once-sandy barrier beach.

The causeway was built between 1913 and 1924, which opened up the possibility of development on the island. Gooseberry was then sold again, and the new owners created vacation lots on which residents were permitted to build summer houses.

Before the causeway was built, there was little or no erosion of East Beach; after the causeway was put in, there was a drastic increase in sand loss, Sullivan noted. Although some modifications to the causeway could help restore the beach, no one was calling for removal of the causeway, he stressed.

Courtney Rocha, regional coordinator for the state Municipal Vulnerability Program, urged the local committee to firm up its list of “actionable items” recommended in the final report and set priorities for funding the short- and long-term goals on that action list.

Above: Irene swept away so much sand that beach trailers’ homesite tight tanks were exposed.

In 2008/2009, the Army Corp of Engineers dredged the entrance into the Westport Harbor, depositing the sand on Boater’s Beach, heading east. The effort created a berm 3 feet high and 2000 feet long from the dune edge to the highwater mark on the beach.

The beach nourishment effort was quickly washed away in just a few months by tidal flow and high tides.

So much for beach nourishment; it isn’t going to work on this stretch of Cherry & Webb Beach, and is sketchy for East Beach at best.

Above: The Westport harbormaster takes state officials on a tour of the Westport River dredging project. In the background is the 2000-foot long sand berm that was created from the harbor entrance’s dredging material.

Unfortunately, the replenishment/nourishment material was washed away by wave action in less than two months.

Above: Sand and water from the barge’s pump deposited material onto Cherry & Webb Beach down by Boater’s Beach.

Above: This MAPGEO image of a portion East Beach Road shows how much of the East Beach south trailer lots have been lost to wave action.

Above: This photo of the rock-lined sandbar leading to Gooseberry Island is prior to the construction of the causeway in 1924.

The rocks helped travelers in vehicles (wagons?) reach the island at low tide.

Photo courtesy of the Westport Historical Society

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