This document is a letter from First Coastal Corporation responding to public comments on a beach restoration project in Quogue, NY. It summarizes 15 topics of public concern and provides responses to each. The key points addressed are that studies show the area has lost 500,000 cubic yards of sand and needs restoration, the project will have minimal short-term environmental impacts and restore habitat, and it is designed with a 10-year lifespan based on scientific calculations of erosion rates.

1. First Coastal Corporation, Post Office Box 1212, 4 Arthur Street, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
Phone: 631-288-2271, Fax: 631-288-8949 www.firstcoastal.com
Environmental Consulting and Construction. Permits to Construction. Preserving the coast since 1975
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Naomi Handell
Eastern Permits Section - New York District
US Army Corps of Engineers
26 Federal Plaza
New York, NY 10278-0090
RE: USACE Permit App # NAN-2012-00011-EHA
Public Notice Responses – Public Comments
Village of Quogue - Beach Restoration Project
Dune Road, Quogue, NY
Dear Ms. Handell:
As per the letters from your office dated August 13, 2015 and July 30, 2015 (copies
attached), please find the following responses to the public comments and questions for
the above referenced project as per your request:
Specific questions and recommendations from the public comment correspondence
have been grouped together according to the common points identified below.
1. There is a need for a cost benefit analysis. ( 1 response)
The decision whether to do a cost benefit analysis will be undertaken by the project
sponsors the Village of Quogue, after the permits are issued.
2. Project is not cost effective. (6 responses)
The permit process is to evaluate environmental concerns associated with the project.
The cost effectiveness will be determined by the project sponsor, the Village of Quogue.

2. First Coastal Corporation, Post Office Box 1212, 4 Arthur Street, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
Phone: 631-288-2271, Fax: 631-288-8949 www.firstcoastal.com
Environmental Consulting and Construction. Permits to Construction. Preserving the coast since 1975
3. There is a need for the development of a Coastal Management Plan. (18
responses)
Quogue has a robust and comprehensive Coastal Management Plan including land use
controls, structure setbacks and aggressive dune building. These programs include:
A. Flood damage prevention program: The Village requires that all new and
substantially improved buildings located within the 100 year flood plan be
elevated 2 feet above the federal National Flood Insurance Program standard
(Chapter 95 Flood Damage).
B. Coastal Erosion Hazard Area (Chapter 80 Village Code): The Village requires
that all new construction and substantial improvement on the ocean beach be
built north (landward) of the coastal erosion hazard line established by the NYS
DEC under the state-wide coastal erosion law (Article 34, Environmental
Conservation Law)
C. Annual sand fencing (Chapter 146-12C ): The Village requires that sand fence be
annually erected in front of every oceanfront home to trap windblown sand and
restore/ enhance the dune.
D. Annual Dune Restoration (Chapter 146-11 Village Code): The Village has a
current and longstanding (since 2007) permit to scrape sand from the beach and
move it to the adjacent dune and stabilize it with beach grass when the beach
meets the NYSDEC required configuration of 100 feet wide and 6 feet above sea
level. This activity has been undertaken three times in the last five years when
the ocean beach met that criteria.
Beach restoration using beach compatible sand from a suitable off-shore source is a
logical extension of the existing Village coastal management program that should be
undertaken after detailed analysis, location of a suitable sand source, issuance of the
appropriate permits and consensus of the community.
4. There is a need for the creation of a monitoring program. (2 responses)
A detailed condition survey involving profiles at ~300 foot spacing’s from the dune to
~3,500 feet offshore was completed in February 2011. Earlier in 2015, the Village
determined to undertake further monitoring and these same profiles lines were re
surveyed.
Additionally there is monitoring data dating from 1995 to 2001 as part of the Atlantic
Coast of New York Monitoring Program a cooperative effort of the New York State
Department of State, the US Army Corps of Engineers and New York Sea Grant.
The Village also conducted beach surveys before and after beach scraping, as per
response 3D above, in July 2010, August 2010, August 2012 (before and after), August
2013, September 2013, July 2014, and September 2014.

3. First Coastal Corporation, Post Office Box 1212, 4 Arthur Street, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
Phone: 631-288-2271, Fax: 631-288-8949 www.firstcoastal.com
Environmental Consulting and Construction. Permits to Construction. Preserving the coast since 1975
5. Project is not needed. (29 responses)
Scientifically verifiable and documented studies that have examined 50 years of shoreline
history for the region, including studies by the USACE, Southampton College and New York
State have been reviewed. The conclusion is that there is a sand deficit of 500,000 cubic
yards along more than two (2) miles of Quogue’s Atlantic ocean shoreline and that the
Quogue shoreline is losing 60,000 cubic yards ( approximately 3,000 dump truck loads) of
sand per year.
Virtually every scientific and engineering study has concluded that the shoreline from
Hampton Bays to East Quogue and into Quogue is severely compromised as the result of
sand starvation. It is certain that this area will continue to experience overwash and
potential breaching without proactive steps to restore the sand supply through beach
nourishment. For example, in the mild winter of 2014-2015, the Town of Southampton in
conjunction with Suffolk County and NYSDEC spent nearly one million dollars for a
temporary, emergency levee system at Tiana Beach covering only 1,800 feet of shoreline.
This temporary, emergency measure is designed to protect against only a 1 in 10 year
storm.
6. Project does not provide protection against flooding or erosion. ( 1
response)
A healthy barrier island is a naturally feature that helps to protect the mainland by
preventing overwashing and breaching. A wide, high beach with large dunes provides
significant flooding and erosion protection to the barrier island and the more densely
populated mainland found landward. The restoration of the barrier island proposed by the
Village of Quogue nourishment project would restore the health of the barrier island and
improve the flood and erosion protection in the Village.
7. The project will have an adverse impact on sand flow and marine habitat.
(18 responses)
There is scientific agreement that beach nourishment does not have a significant
environmental impact. Beach nourishment has been well studied by federal and state
agencies, as well as universities and not for profits. Although opinions of people on the use
of beach nourishment may vary, the scientific community agrees that beach nourishment
does not have a significant environmental impact. The environmental impacts that do occur
are minimal and very short term. Ecosystems generally return to preexisting/ enhanced
condition in less than a year. See for example, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The New
York District’s Biological Monitoring Program for the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey, Asbury
Park to Manasquan Section Beach Erosion Control Project, which is an in-depth biological
study investigating post nourishment ecosystems.
In a short period of time following the placement of sand along the ocean beach and
shoreline, the designed/ constructed configuration will readjust as a result of natural ocean
waves, tides and currents. The sand will at this point become part of the natural shoreline
system. The beach shape will conform to surrounding areas as a result of natural oceanic
processes and the oceanic and upland organisms will recolonize the region. The completed
beach will have a wider beach providing more habitat for endangered species including
piping plover and sea beach amaranth.

4. First Coastal Corporation, Post Office Box 1212, 4 Arthur Street, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
Phone: 631-288-2271, Fax: 631-288-8949 www.firstcoastal.com
Environmental Consulting and Construction. Permits to Construction. Preserving the coast since 1975
8. The permit cannot be used for any emergency action in the case of a
catastrophic event. (16 responses)
The proposed permit can be used both before and after an emergency. In fact having
the permits in place will ensure that following a catastrophic event that the emergency
restoration can be executed more expeditiously.
9. A sand bypass should be implemented at Shinnecock Inlet. (1 response)
A sand bypass project is not included as part of this project.
Nevertheless it is important to note that sand bypass was begun at Shinnecock Inlet in
2004 under the authority of the Shinnecock inlet navigation project paid for by the US
Army Corps of Engineers, NYSDEC and Suffolk Department of Public Works. Over the
last decade at various intervals this project has deposited an aggregate of
approximately 800,000 cubic yards of sand in the vicinity of Roads K and L in Hampton
Bays. This sand moves westward towards Quogue at the rate of approximately 500
feet per year. Thus, in another sixty years (six decades) the first grains of sand will
begin to deposit in the Village of Quogue. During that same timeframe, the Village will
lose 60,000 cubic yards per year or 3.6 million cubic yards.
10.The cost of the project should be allocated by the amount of each
homeowner’s beach frontage. (3 responses)
The allocation of payment for the proposed project is not relevant as the permit process
is to address environmental concerns. The cost allocation for the project will be
determined by the project sponsor, the Village of Quogue.
11.A new inlet should be built in East Quogue. ( 2 responses)
The creation of a new inlet in East Quogue is not included as part of this project. A new
inlet would likely have significant environmental impacts to the barrier island, the bay
and the more densely populated mainland to the north. A new inlet would also likely
accelerate sediment starvation in the Quogue region and further increase the
degradation of the barrier island in the Village of Quogue. Additionally, it may increase
flooding in the region.
12.Homes should be relocated off of Dune Road. (1 response)
The relocation of homes off Dune Road is not included as part of this project. The cost
to relocate homes off Dune Road/ purchase the properties on Dune Road would cost
hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, the relocation of the homes would not
change the fact that the barrier island is in a vulnerable condition, erosion is continuing
to occur as a result of sand starvation and ~60,000 CY of sand per year is being lost
from the Village beaches annually.

5. First Coastal Corporation, Post Office Box 1212, 4 Arthur Street, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978
Phone: 631-288-2271, Fax: 631-288-8949 www.firstcoastal.com
Environmental Consulting and Construction. Permits to Construction. Preserving the coast since 1975
13.Hard structures (such as geotubes and groins) increase erosion. (1
response)
There are no hard structures (geocubes and groins) proposed with the project.
14.Will the project have an impact on sea level rise? (1 response)
The project will not have an adverse impact on seal level rise. Beach nourishment is
widely recognized as an appropriate response to sea level rise.
15.The project is only a temporary fix. (26 responses)
The project is designed with a 10 year lifetime based upon scientific investigation and
established principles of coastal engineering. The project design includes 500,000 CY
to offset the measured sand deficit, and 600,000 CY to accommodate 10 years of
erosion scientifically calculated at 60,000 CY per year.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact our
office.
Sincerely,
First Coastal Corporation
Aram V. Terchunian, M.Sc.
President