By Dr. Hildur Palsdottir
Sea levels are rising as a consequence of climate change, but so are high-rise buildings directly at the waterfront. Visit Sands Point Preserve for a dramatic display of an eroding shoreline and a direct warning that we must stop building on unstable ground. What good is a waterfront villa if the land erodes beneath it?
An alarming study by the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service in November 2015 reported the loss of at least a third of Long Island Sound’s tidal wetlands in a 130-year study documenting overdevelopment. This trend has accelerated in recent years and is particularly aggressive in Nassau. You can go look for yourself for the little that’s left of our salt marshes and natural surfaces along the shoreline. It’s important to stress that both saltwater and freshwater wetlands are critical climate regulators.
Coastal wetlands can sequester carbon faster than forests. Acting as natural sponges, wetlands also help absorb water and protect homes and roads from flooding, recharge aquifers and help detoxify human pollutants.
Still, there seems to be no end in sight for North Shore developments at the waterfront. At Hempstead Harbor, for instance, one proposal includes the construction of an unprecedented five-story, 176-unit, multi-family building above a two-level parking garage.
This two-acre lot is on the same side as the publicly accessible North Hempstead Beach Park and directly across from the newly protected Hempstead Harbor Woods (formerly known as “the sand pits”). Pollution, overpopulation and traffic concerns aside, this planned construction is located in a high-risk flood zone.
This proposed building seems completely out of alignment with the investment the Town of North Hempstead has already made in coastal ecosystem recovery at the Hempstead Harbor.
Hempstead Harbor has a long history of abuse, as featured in an Oct. 23, 1971 Newsday article entitled: “Who’s Killing Hempstead Harbor?” Sediments from sand mining, industrial wastewaters, unchecked sewage, pollution from incinerators and landfills, in addition to oil spills, provoked the head of Adelphi University Marine Sciences Institute, A. Harry Brenowitz, to exclaim: “Only a fool would swim in Hempstead Harbor.”
In a 1986 New York Times article entitled “Legacy of waste haunts harbor” Josephine Brecher, a biologist with the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, said: ”Hempstead Harbor is probably one of the most polluted harbors on the North Shore.” That same year, the non-profit Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor was formed and since then they have championed the cleanup chronicled here https://coalitiontosavehempsteadharbor.org/.
The TONH has been a reliable ally in protection and conservation along the shoreline. Reviving Long Island Sound has truly become an island-wide community project, where homeowners can participate as stewards by insisting on proper sewage treatments, maintaining private septic tanks and pipes and reducing stormwater runoff while stopping the use of harmful chemicals and high Nitrogen fertilizers.
Improved wastewater treatment and coordinated efforts in conservation at Hempstead Harbor have helped clean up the pollution. Nitrates have been measurably lowered and as a result the shellfish industry is returning, together with experimental sugar kelp farms. Currently, the bay receives between C-plus and D in swimmability, as graded by the Save the Sound 2020 report (fig. https://www.savethesound.org/report-card).
There are many reasons we must stop the construction of multi-story buildings in this recovering watershed, but let’s start with safety concerns. In a changing climate, we simply can’t be building directly at the waterfront anymore. We can’t hide behind sea walls and cement structures; we must respect the landscape’s ability to withstand weather, wind and waves. Our lives are intimately dependent on healthy ecosystem function, both for structural support as well as, of course, for access to clean air and (drinking) water. We’ve reached the limits of our tidal wetlands.
All residential development at the waterfront is vulnerable to structural damage and at risk in terms of safety, but in a changing climate these risks multiply. As predicted, we are already experiencing more extreme weather events and we must respond appropriately by expanding on natural surfaces as our best allies in preparation for flash flooding and storm surges. We must ensure citizen safety by moving all planned residences away from the tidal coastline.
Eco-friendly design of a permeable public marina and nature-based promenade, with docks for human-powered rowing and sailboats, beautification with deep-rooted biodiverse native pollinator gardens and monarch butterfly sanctuaries are in alignment with recovering the natural function of Hempstead Harbor. Reclaiming coastal ecosystem function ensures climate resiliency and translates into citizen safety.
We must partner with nature and design green infrastructure to absorb the shock of future extreme weather events and not place our citizens on the frontlines of climate disasters.
