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.