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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013_8_2 Cavedon letter_201405230853375210Note: I wrote a much shorter version of this letter to the Board of Selectman two weeks ago when I first got wind of the SBPF’s latest effort to safe the bluff. I’m submitting the revised letter below for your consideration after attending 2 ConCom hearings a PR presentation at the Sconset Casino for the project and a lot of listening, researching and talking with neighbors. I apologize for the length but there is so much to say about this overreaching “rush to war” on one of the most pristine beaches I have ever had the pleasure of spending time. I’m not a lawyer or a coastal expert. But those of us living in Codfish Park and Low Beach need to have a voice in this decision. Many residents are not aware of what is actually going on. This project came on very quickly, in the middle of a very busy summer season. Some of the residents are new owners this year, some are quite elderly, while others are busy with family or renting their homes. I don’t feel that we are adequately represented and I thought it was best to express myself in writing rather than try to present my less than adequate speaking self to the board. I‘ve been enjoying Sconset beach for 30 years now. I’ve raised my daughter there and am in general an avid beach enthusiast as is my entire family. We decided to spend our summers in Nantucket because of its natural unspoiled beauty. What is being proposed by SBPF will surely change all of that. And it will most likely, put the rest of us, living immediately north and south of this colossal project in harm’s way. This is a reckless last resort effort. The vaguely stated monitoring and mitigation the SBPF are willing to do to determine ‘adverse impact’ will likely be too little too late in terms of repairing the damage to Sconset beach or the community it serves. The SBPF says they are trying to save Sconset…I think they may be much more likely to harm it. Good intentions and ample resources don’t necessarily mean good results. I submit my detailed thoughts on the subject below. To: The Nantucket Conservation Commission: Regarding The Revetment Project on Baxter Rd. by SBPF. August 2, 2013 From: Suzanne Cavedon 21 Bank St. Nantucket I'm a resident of Cod Fish Park and we have owned our cottage since the mid-eighties. It was purchased just a few years before "the-hundred-year- storm" hit. I've been witnessing the coming and going of sand on Sconset beach for years now. Although the damage from “The Perfect Storm” was irreversible, and the homes on the oceanside of Cod Fish Park Road were lost or moved, we have had a fairly stable situation on the beach ever since. Sconset Beach has been able to replenish itself and even regain lost sand over the last twenty years. After this last wallop of a winter, the beach now seems to be in the process of building a protective dune. This, I am told by experts, is due to the natural corrections the beach will make by way of the littoral drift (the sideways wave action we have in Sconset) that allows the beach to accrete sand and maintain itself. I was well educated by the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund, when they first presented the research they'd compiled in the early nineties, while attempting to find non-invasive ways to nourish the Bluff and the beach against another catastrophic storm. It was very obvious, by way of the evidence in slide after slide shown at the Sconset Casino, that stone revetments all over the world were often successful at protecting the land directly behind them...but... uniformly eroded all adjacent beaches to one degree or another, depending on the open ocean exposure, severity of storms and energy of the coastline involved. The current science only backs-up these older findings with data some of which was recently presented to the Nantucket Conservation Commission. If our beach is starved of its natural ability to accrete sand from the bluff we have little to no hope of maintaining our beaches. Which, in my opinion, is the greatest asset we have as an Island. Nothing can protect us from the direct hit of a powerful hurricane or another 100 year incident. I have accepted the fact that I may have to move my cottage or lose it to the sea in the near or distant future. In the meantime, I continue to cherish the luxury of this beautiful place I’ve had the privileged of enjoying for so many years. However, I’m certainly in no rush to give it up, especially at the hands of a man-made project that threatens accelerated erosion as well as the beach’s natural ability to heal itself . This is a very dangerous risk The Sconset Beach Preservation Fund is asking the rest of us to take. In Codfish Park alone, there are 36 private homes, a very busy and much loved public beach, an active playground and a highly visited tourist neighborhood with a deep historic connection to the village. Codfish Park is also the “buffer zone” between the open ocean and Sconset Village, undisputedly one of the most beautiful historic treasures in the United States. To protect, at the very most, fifteen marginally historic homes on Baxter Rd., which are outside the core-historic district, at the risk of what could be disrupted or lost by the Village and the owners of property in CodFish Park, Low Beach Road, Tom Nevers, Quidnet and Squam is not justifiable by any standard of common sense. Additionally, if Cod Fish Park Road is breached by the sea and is permanently impassable, the adverse impact to the entire village will be inevitable. Current northeast storms have already breached Cod Fish Park Road this spring. No doubt, if this becomes permanent, and the beach cannot sustain itself and regain lost ground, roads and services will have to be re-routed and homes moved. We, as the residents of Sconset, need to discuss the possible solutions and adjustments we may be required to make, as a community in the future. However, the last thing we need right now is to rush into such a serious decision without adequate advice from independent coastal experts, engineers and without the community being informed properly of the choices being made for them. The secrets of the ebb and flow of a beach are as old as the earth and are still largely a mystery to scientists. What they do know, with certainty, is that after 75 years of experience, hard armoring proves to have serious adverse impact to the up and down drift beaches. It’s also well known that hard armoring is usually a last resort solution to protect harbors, towns and other important public infrastructure because of the very fact that these artificial structures interrupt the normal flow of the coastline. The SBPF says they will monitor the loss of sand and replenish it as needed in perpetuity to the at risk beaches. This seems a mission impossible, that will most likely fall far short of its promise. We must also take into very serious consideration that this proposed experiment on the Sconset Bluff is a worst-case scenario for revetment, facing as it does, the harsh unobstructed North Atlantic. Erosion is a complex issue that Nantucket is now facing, and we need to address it collaboratively as an Island. It’s not the time for the “everyman- for-himself” approach. The negative impacts of this proposed project on Sconset Village area could turn out to be a very large burden to the Nantucket taxpayers as well. This “great wall," now being proposed, also jeopardizes the natural beauty of our beaches. This may well be the most important reason to put a halt to the project and the precedent it will set. Most of us are here because of the natural beauty of our beaches. It is undoubtedly why so many of us flock here to replenish ourselves and partake of its wild natural resources. There are so few places left in the world that represent so exquisitely the marginal and ever changing place we call “beach,” that luminal, enchanted space between the land and sea. We need to begin to make thoughtful decisions based on the very best current science and the unique character of our environment. The rush to turn our beaches into armored embankments has a multitude of dangers that we may have to live with for a very long time, if we make the wrong choice now. I hope we can begin a serious, on-going and sober discussion, as a group, to decide where we stand as a community and how we will protect, certainly our property and businesses, but more importantly how we can find a balance between being good stewards of our unique environment as well as protecting our cultural heritage as an Island. Suzanne Cavedon 21 Bank St.