Rob: Right. So you've got the potential for the break to be destroyed, for the beach to be contaminated, and for whom? Well, it's really for those who want to protect their beachfront property at the risk to everyone else. And you've got multiple taxes being collected to pay for this. From the county, the city itself and the state government all coming to pay for this huge project.

An Aerial View of a Portion of the Long Beach Project.
See Sand Replenishment Link at End of Article for More Info.
Click here to Blow this Photo Up (with Legend).

By my last count, you've got $86 million going just for this part of the project. The whole project for this whole region, I think it's somewhere around $800 million dollars.

The purpose of the project is "to stabilize barrier island beaches along the Atlantic Coast of Long Island" with groins that were originally rejected by the Carter administration back in 1978. So this is a long term project with big implications.

CD: Does Surfrider feel the project has been handled legitimately?

There's this slam-dunk mentality -- like it's a done deal. And we're encouraging public hearings here in Long Beach on this. But these hearings can be called at any time without our knowledge. Then at the same time, we've already seen a politician from the county has convinced one town not to disagree with the project. So he wrote a letter saying that the town actually agreed with the project, and he took it to the next town to try to get them to sign on. Morally, it's a pretty corrupt series of tactics that people are using on these things. And it makes it very difficult to know who's your friend, and who's your enemy.

CD: It seems like a lot of this goes to the same sorts of arguments we've been having here in California with the seawall debates. Transparency of processes, and public interest versus private property. The private homeowner has an interest in protecting his or her property, but where does that impinge on the public's right to a beach?

Rob: Right, and who says that the private property owner had to have their property protected on the shoulders of the public?

CD: Even though the first row of property is the most expensive, with a project this massive, it seems that you might just be better off planning to one day remove the first row of homes.