For years the Army Corps plan for a massive rock wall revetment at the base of the Montauk Lighthouse was stalled because the Corps did not have a local sponsor for the project, which is typically a municipality. The State DEC, Department of Environmental Conservation, was fine as the state sponsor, but the Town of East Hampton was not willing to be the local sponsor. Hence, this project stalled for years. The Army Corps is not allowed to enter into agreements with non-profit organizations like the Montauk Historical Society, who owns the lighthouse.

The Corps and NY DEC are now attempting to get around this by making the State Parks Department the local sponsor since they own 2/3rds of the land around the lighthouse. This may seem like an end-run to get around long standing rules governing where the Army Corps can operate. Other agreements between the NY DEC and the Corps, as well as between the State Parks and the Montauk Historical Society are needed to ensure maintenance activities can be performed.

It is ten years old but the The original Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement, EIS, is here. And the Chapter’s comments on it are here, also ten years old.

Congress ordered the Corps to re-evaluate all of their projects not yet constructed after Hurricane Sandy.  The Hurricane Sandy Limited Reevaluation Report, HSLRR, is here.  This web page contains that report and all the appendices related to the project.  http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/ProjectsinNewYork/MontaukPoint.aspx

Some notable differences are that the Corps plans to use larger boulders this time; 15-ton vs 12-ton. They no longer plan to dig out the toe of the current revetment and take out the rocks from the current revetment for possible re-use. They plan to place this new layer of 15-ton boulders on top of the existing revetment without digging out the toe, which is below mean low water.

The Chapter will be commenting on this proposal before the public comment period closes on June 3rd and you should too. Comments should be sent to:

Robert Smith, Project Biologist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District
Attn: CENAN-PL-E
26 Federal Plaza, Rm. 2131
New York, NY 10278-0090
(917) 790-8729
or email: Robert.j.smith@usace.army.mil

A list of talking points will follow this post.