Port Jefferson looks at next steps in protecting East Beach bluff from erosion

Nearly three years after a series of winter storms raised concerns that erosion mitigation wasn't working at Port Jefferson's East Beach bluff, village officials are preparing their next steps in a yearslong effort to protect the 97-foot cliff.

Once nearly bare and exposed to wind, rain and snow, the bluff now is covered with beach grasses and shrubs intended to harden the surface and prevent it from collapsing.

Less apparent to the naked eye is the 100-yard-long steel barrier buried 35 feet deep in the beach, beneath a concrete wall to stabilize the bluff against future storms.

The vegetation and steel barrier are part of a $10 million, two-phase project to stem erosion that has slowly eaten away at the bluff for more than a decade, imperiling a catering hall at the village-owned Port Jefferson Country Club that sits atop the cliff, Newsday previously reported. Tennis courts that had been inches from the cliff's edge due to erosion already have been closed and removed.

Phase 2 in the works

Mayor Lauren Sheprow said the village is readying plans to start the second phase of erosion mitigation efforts. Phase 2 calls for burying a second steel barrier at the top of the bluff to help prevent the catering hall from tumbling onto the beach, she said. The dimensions of the new barrier have not been announced.

The village board has scheduled a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday to hear a presentation on the plans by GEI Consultants. The meeting at Village Hall is open to the public.

Sheprow said the project's first phase appears to be working.

“If there are four corners to turn, I feel like we’ve turned two,” she said during a tour of the bluff late last month. “It looks like these plantings are here to stay.”

The project got off to a rocky start.

After the village planted switchgrass and beach grass and installed burlap netting on the bluff in June 2023, a series of storms later that year and in January 2024 left two 70-foot gashes about 100 yards apart on the face of the cliff.

After restoring the damaged areas, village officials could do little more than wait as the plantings extended their roots deep within the sandy cliff.

The restored cliff seemed to pass its latest test in late September, when a nor'easter rocked Long Island. Any damage at the bluff caused by the storm was barely visible during the visit last month.

“The moral of the story is, it’s a lot better than it was in 2021,” Sheprow said. “If you look at pictures taken now compared to 2021 — very, very different.”

The village has about $4.8 million remaining to fund the upper-bluff steel reinforcement in Phase 2, the mayor said. In 2023, FEMA approved reimbursement of 75% up to $3.75 million for the overall project, she said.

A 'challenging' installation

The actual cost of installing the upper-bluff barrier won't be known until the project is put out to bid, expected later this year or next year, the mayor said.

Monday's village board presentation will include discussions of proposed designs, drainage and landscaping, GEI senior consultant Gary Rozmus said in an email.

He said installing the barrier, and working around the catering facility, "is challenging as the property is developed at the top of a bluff. The building’s proximity to the bluff crest also poses a challenge to the site."

The bluff project has faced criticism from some village residents who question its cost.

Ana Hozyainova, president of the Port Jefferson Civic Association, said she supports efforts to preserve the bluff. But the civic group wants to see different options that might be less expensive.

“What’s the cost of doing nothing? What’s the cost of doing [options] A, B and C?” she said in a phone interview. “It just reaches a wider network of people, and we believe this decision is just enormous. Especially with the amount of money that we are committing one way or another ... it's important the villagers get involved in this question.”