Islanders sound off on beach rebuilding plan
ENVIRONMENT
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Opponents and skeptics of the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund's beach rebuilding project got their chance to speak on the record about the project at the Conservation Commission's Dec. 5 meeting.

The seventh continuation of SBPF's public hearing featured two short underwater videos shot by charter fisherman and Althea K. captain Pete Kaizer and an architectural survey of 'Sconset by Nantucket Preservation Trust Executive Director Michael May.

In an effort to show SBPF and the commission what would be lost by widening the beaches off Baxter Road 216 feet to the east with dredged sand from offshore shoals, Kaizer's film showed schools of striped bass swimming among the low rocks and boulders of the existing underwater cobble habitat, along with sponges, seaweeds and other marine vegetation.

"I say this is close to the potential death of a lot of things [down there]," Kaizer said.

Closer to the surface the video showed clouds of krill, small shrimp-like marine animals, which Kaizer believes is a relatively new food source for fish in Nantucket waters.

SBPF's island attorney Bill Hunter did not contest the video but asked for coordinates from Kaizer so his clients could compare it with their own data.

"I think it's clear from our presentation that we don't doubt the fact that there's good habitat out there," said Hunter. "We also made it clear that what we plan to cover with this project is a very, very small part of that [cobble habitat]. We've tried to be very specific with the information we give, how we collect it and where we got it. We hope you would be able to provide us with information about the film that we just saw."

Kaizer then showed a second video showing the coordinates on his boat's global position system monitor.

"…(A)ll we want to know is what we're looking at," Hunter responded. "It looks as if you were shooting anywhere from 1,000 to 3,500 feet offshore. That's well beyond the beach that we're proposing."

Kaizer replied that he is also worried about scouring damage from dredges that he believes will aid in smothering cobble habitat.

The results of an architectural survey of Baxter Road and Codfish Park followed Kaiser's presentation. SBPF has said that part of the reasoning behind beach nourishment is the number of historic houses that could be lost if nothing is done to slow erosion.

From the Preservation Trust's survey of 54 houses, May said that there were several examples of simple Capes, bungalows, Victorians, Queen Anne and Second Empire Style houses along the bluff along with Codfish Park cottages built in the 1930s and 1940s that mirrored the style of the fishing shacks originally built there, all of which could eventually be lost to the ocean without the SBPF beach nourishment project.

However, not all who attended the meeting believed the Conservation Commission should be concerned with historic preservation.

"I'm just not too sure this content was appropriate to a ConCom hearing," said the Nantucket Land Council's resource conservationist Emily Molden. "It would be like my going to an HDC meeting and making comments on a wetland next to a historic structure."

The four-hour session also featured Bob DeCosta, charter fishing boat captain of the Albacore, concerned about the damage from the anchors of the two dredging vessels when they connect and disengage from the pipelines pumping sand onshore. DeCosta, who shares Kaizer's fears of cobble habitat being covered by sand stirred up by propeller scour, estimated that the dredges would drop and haul their anchors a combined 2,000 times, damaging the bottom each time.

"In my mind, this project is not feasible for the amount that you're going to gain," he said.

Recreational fishermen Arthur Gasbarro agreed, telling the ConCom that SBPF needs to provide more information and analysis of the impacts of the project on the marine environment.

"The length of the project has not been adequately quantified," he said. "I believe the overall amount of the impact on the habitat hasn't been properly quantified."

Gasbarro also suggested that SBPF's members consider moving some of their houses to one of the 14-lots in developer John Keane's Black Fish Lane subdivision at 36

Burnell St. I