Stone along Hull sea wall a bad idea
I want to express my outrage over the Department of Conservation and Recreation's misguided plans to dump stone along the Nantasket Beach sea wall this month to keep the sea wall from collapsing ("Shoring up Nantasket Beach wall," April 1, Globe South).
In quick summary, after a December storm, the DCR determined that several hundred yards of the sea wall is in danger of collapsing due to many years of erosion (and the DCR's neglect and mismanagement). The DCR's ultimate solution is to dump truckloads of cobble, which is made up of stone, gravel, and some sand.
On April 7, Katherine Abbott, DCR commissioner, and her employees informed the town that this project -- which is scheduled to run for at least 45 days, six days a week, with trucks dumping stone from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. -- would begin April 16. They freely admitted that they have no idea what the impact of this project will have on the ecology of the beach and went on to state that no formal study was consulted.
Why would the DCR want to spend $2 million just 18 months prior to starting the reconstruction project? Are we to believe that this sea wall will cause such a public menace that they have to immediately spend $2 million and dump tons of stone along the beach, essentially closing the beach for a temporary fix?
The business impact for the town of Hull is frightening. How will people walk the beach? Where will people take their children this summer? Even if the DCR timeline is correct, that section of beach will be unusable. If people don't come to our town, businesses in Hull and surrounding communities will suffer.
The handling of this emergency project is also unsettling. The DCR fenced off the beach and rammed this plan down residents' throats. We have a Conservation Commission and engineers here. The beach is the property of the Commonwealth and not the politicians.
At Hull Town Meeting, several good ideas were discussed by the townspeople. These ideas are based on years of observation and experience and should be considered before the DCR ruins Nantasket Beach. I propose the DCR seriously reconsider their misguided decision and go back to the people of the South Shore for their thoughts before ecologic and economic disaster strikes the communities that rely on Nantasket Beach.
Lynn NorburyHull
