Quogue Group Pushing For Nourishment On Village Beaches

As dredging gets under way for a groundbreaking $26 million nourishment effort for the beaches in Sagaponack, Water Mill and Bridgehampton, elsewhere in the town another oceanside village is grappling with the issue of beach nourishment in its own right.

Fueled by a citizen-based initiative that footed more than $100,000 to have a nourishment plan drafted, Quogue Village has been flirting with the idea of undergoing beach nourishment for more than three years.

Mayor Peter Sartorius said the Village Board was approached in 2010 by a group of citizens lobbying for nourishment of Quogues 2.7-mile stretch of beach. The group of primarily Dune Road residents, which formed the nonprofit Save the Dunes and Beaches Foundation, agreed to pay the permit fees on behalf of the village.

Theres no commitment to go forward with any kind of a project, Mayor Sartorius said. It wasnt like a secret or anythingit was mentioned in meetings, and I addressed it in my state of the village address.

Currently, the group has pending applications for beach nourishment, in the villages name, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York General Services Administration and the New York Coastal Management Program, according to Aram Terchunian of First Coastal, a Westhampton Beach erosion control firm.

Mr. Terchunian is a longtime consultant to the group as well as a consultant for the project in eastern Southampton Town.

Its important, because everyones got a stake in the beachregardless of where you live in Quogue, youve got a stake in the beach, Mr. Terchunian said. If youre a Quogue resident and youve been going to the beach for the past eight to 10 years, you know that its a shrinking situation.

The Save the Dunes and Beaches Foundation is calling for a project that would dredge about 1.1 million cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor about a mile offshore and use that sand to add an average of 60 feet of beach to the 14,235 linear feet of coastline. The added sand would act as an additional barrier to protect the houses on Dune Road, as well as the village as a whole, Mr. Terchunian explained.

According to the groups proposed plan, which is available on its website, quoguebeaches.org, as well as in hard copies at the Quogue Library and Village Hall, the project could be completed in about two months and would cost more than $14.1 million.

Mayor Sartorius said the village has no intentions of moving forward with such a project at this time, as it has not been determined if its necessary or in the publics best interest, adding, At this point were at an informal discussion phase.

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Quogue Group Pushing For Nourishment On Village Beaches

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