Rob: Well, with Long beach, I haven't heard anyone say that it's under severe stress. In fact, in Long Beach, the overwhelming evidence is that in a storm, the damage isn't mostly from the ocean side, it's flooding from the bayside. By the nature of the way storms run through Long Beach, we've had numerous people tell us that their homes are affected in Hurricanes and Nor'easters because of the way water rises in the bay.

So the beach there may actually be shielded enough, but not enough in the interest of the homeowner who is built too close to the beach in the first place.

CD: I've been surfing at Lido and Long Beach. I remember the stretch in Lido as not really having a dune. It was just pretty much flat sand, but I don’t remember the ocean making it all the way up to the wall. Is that what most of the beach there is like?

Rob: It depends on what beach you're talking about. There are dunes at some of the beaches. But here, there's generally a lack of intelligence about what dunes actually do. Recently for example, in Westhampton, there was a report that a dune had actually been destroyed by a beach renourishment project. That's moronic. It's just lunacy.

CD: What are some risks with the renourishment project in Long Beach?

Rob: The proposal I've heard suggests that there would be a massive dredging that would destroy the sandbar and probably the surf at Long Beach. The question is, do the beaches really need it, and is this the right kind of sand to throw on the beach?

Computer Similuation of Long Beach Project. (see link at end of article)
Will This Sand Be Contaminated?

CD: Clarify that.

Rob: Will this sand also bring inorganics and toxins that have settled on the bottom of the ocean? How are you going to be contaminating this new beach that you now want families to enjoy.

CD: That's a considerable issue right? Because there's been a lot of dumping offshore of New York through the years. It's not like South or North Carolina where, you you dredge with a barge, you don't really have heavy metals, PCB's and toxins in the undersea soil to worry about.