The town of Edgartown received emergency authorization from the Department of Environmental Protection Monday to begin maintenance dredging within Katama Bay to repair damages to the town’s South Beach area.
Total repair work to the area, which includes utilizing sand dredged from Katama Bay to help fortify South Beach dunes, is expected to cost $1.76 million.
In order to qualify for funding through the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), the Edgartown Select Board declared a state of emergency on Jan. 17, following a series of coastal storms that caused serious damage to the town’s south-facing beaches. The town’s conservation commission has already issued an emergency certification of the proposed work under the state’s Wetland Protection Act.
Edgartown has not yet received funding approval from MEMA since submitting its application last week.
According to the town’s assessment of the damage, the cost of replacing South Beach’s lifeguard facilities, along with the rental of a temporary operations center, will be roughly $450,000.
The town’s plan also calls for repairs of the Herring Creek Bridge and Atlantic Drive, which experienced severe erosion and flooding during the recent storms. The cost for those projects are estimated at $290,000 and $20,000, respectively.
We now face the difficult challenge of deciding when restoring what was there before is an exercise in futility, and how to use limited resources to create something that can stand up to more frequently severe weather events and sea level rise due to climate change. Adaptation, not just restoration, is called for.
You forgot “prevention”
This is federal money from the EPA .That agency that
takes all of our money to make sure some other species
can live on this planet.. And we have clean air and water.
Which of course , republicans hate.
where is the outrage about the “free money”?
Or is the outrage only about things that
will help lessen the severity and/or
frequency of storms and all about gimme
more for damage after the fact ?