Plum Island aid urged

Lack of dredging, jetty repair cited

Slowly, day by day, the roiling Atlantic eats away at Plum Island.

At its center, a beach that was once 200 feet wide has narrowed to 70 feet.

Once-covered "groins" - clusters of rocks and granite arranged on the beach years ago to inhibit erosion - have emerged like black, rotted teeth.

At least eight houses and one seaside restaurant are in danger of being swallowed by the sea, which has chewed its way within a few feet of their foundations.

"Plum Island is vaporizing," lamented Vincent Russo, chairman of the Newbury Board of Selectmen who has owned a house there for 35 years.

"It's eroding, and it isn't building back up again."

The island's plight is the result of years of lagging state and federal funds that once helped replenish the beach; neglected, now ineffectual jetties; and an increased ferocity of tide and wind, according to officials and other concerned residents.

"It's been a perfect storm of unintended consequences for poor Plum Island," said Russo.

And it just can't be ignored any longer, he and others say.

Newbury officials are now putting pressure on federal legislators - with the aid of lobbyist Howard Marlowe, whose services have been paid for through grass-roots efforts - to secure funding to repair jetties and dredge the Merrimack River.

Through the dredging, a practice once performed regularly by the Army Corps of Engineers but abandoned nine years ago, material is churned from the bottom of the river and deposited directly on the beach to add depth and width.

Last year, US Representative John Tierney, a Democrat from Salem, secured $654,000 for the process. But another roughly $750,000 is required to do the job.

Repairing the jetties is no small penny, either: Russo said the south jetty work would cost roughly $2.5 million; the north, because it's nearly twice as long, $6 million.

Russo compared the south jetty to a "camel's back" because it's sunken in, its once tightly arranged rocks now scattered. The end result is "exaggerated" erosion; during storms, winds drive the water over the collapsed portion of the jetty, creating a "funnel effect" that speeds up water and wind.

Russo has written to US legislators about the problem since 2005 and paid his own way to Washington to hold meetings with them, alongside Marlowe. He said they are optimistic they can secure funding for the next fiscal year, but noted that the war in Iraq is drying up funds for Army Corps of Engineers projects.

Tierney confirmed that funding struggle. He explained that he had initially secured the full $1.4 million for dredging, but what he termed President Bush's "failure to negotiate" with Congress on last year's House bill reduced funding for all projects. He intends to fight for the remaining money this year, he said.

Still, residents aren't content to sit and wait for an answer. Several have banded together to create the Plum Island Foundation, a nonprofit that is lobbying and raising funds to pay for Marlowe's services.

Marc Sarkady, a 20-year island resident and foundation founder, said, simply put, islanders are concerned about their homes. But the eroding beach has bigger implications.

Once just the site of seasonal shacks, the island now supports million-dollar homes, each of which brings in between $10,000 and $20,000 a year in tax dollars, he said.

If they're damaged, homes will not only be ruined - but that tax revenue will be gone, Sarkady said. "It could be potentially catastrophic, financially and environmentally."

Russo agreed, adding that Newbury and Newburyport recently made a $30 million investment in a water and sewer system that serves 1,300 homes on the island.

For the short term, he said, the plan is to string snow fencing along the dunes and seek donations to install at least a dozen Mobi-Mats, or giant nylon carpets, along highly trafficked areas to prohibit further erosion.

Selectmen are even considering shutting down the beach to pedestrians.

"Infrastructure is at risk, as well as the homes, as well as the island," said Russo.

Yet the island has come back from this kind of situation before, he noted.

There was severe erosion during the '50s and '60s, but both jetties were repaired between 1968 and 1970, he said, and the beach built itself up again, replenished by regular dredgings. But over the past decade, due largely to the lack of dredging, the sea has steadily eaten away at the sand.

Adding to the problem, Sarkady said, is the ongoing issue with climate change, which he said has revved up storms, often making them much more intense.

Still, he sees reason to remain hopeful. "One of the things we've accomplished is that everybody is talking about this," he said.

In just a few months, the foundation has amassed a mailing list of 700 people and has received roughly $20,000 in donations, he said. "It's very hopeful; it's very heartening."

For more on the foundation, visit plumislandfoundation.org.