The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District and stakeholders ─ the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York State Department of Environmental Protection (NYSDEP), elected officials and local community groups ─ held a press conference in the community of Mastic Beach in Suffolk County, NY, discussing progress on the Army Corps’ Fire Island to Montauk Point (FIMP) Project and the next phase now getting underway.
The Fire Island to Montauk Point project is a far-reaching $2.4 billion initiative reducing flood risk to vulnerable areas along 83 miles of coastline from Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point ─ including the barrier beaches of Fire Island and the mainland of Long Island’s south shore. A project of this magnitude has been made possible through support from New York District partners at the federal, state and local level.
Recently, the Army Corps completed placing 450,000 cubic yards of sand at Downtown Montauk on the eastern tip of Long Island through FIMP, greatly fortifying a shoreline eroded by severe storms. In a separate, but related initiative, this fall the New York District ─ through recently-obtained emergency funding due to severe storms last fall and winter ─ will conduct sand placement of approximately two (2) million cubic yards of sand encompassing 44,000 linear feet (nearly 9 miles) in the Fire Island communities of Cherry Grove, Fire Island Pines, Seaview, Ocean Bay Park and Davis Park, respectively.
The next part of FIMP is a major initiative where the Army Corps of Engineers has identified 4,400 homes/ structures in Suffolk County eligible for home-raising to reduce flood risk in these areas prone to frequent flooding ─ even without major storms. Some areas include Mastic Shirley, western sections of the Town of Brookhaven and the Frederick Shores community in The Town of Babylon.
New York District Commander Col. Alexander Young stated: “There’s two very important things Suffolk residents need to know: 1) this is a voluntary program ─ any homeowner that’s not interested doesn’t have to take part; and 2) it’s a major undertaking that will take a number of years to complete because it’s labor intensive. Every participating home/structure has to be individually evaluated by inspectors from the local jurisdictions and the Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate flood-risk needs and create a design to adequately reduce that risk.”
As part of a formal community outreach strategy, this summer, the Army Corps and project partners will inform residents in these designated areas through mailed notifications and public meetings to explain the program in greater detail and register interested homeowners. In addition, the New York District will have a local presence to answer questions and register homeowners.