Frustrated by a Lack of Details, Communities Await Federal Decision on Protecting New York From Coastal Storm Surges
Inside Climate News
By: Delaney Dryfoos
Five months after the close of a public comment period, New Yorkers are awaiting a response from the Army Corps of Engineers on whether it will forge ahead with a $61.5 billion plan to protect the New York and New Jersey Harbor region from coastal storms.
For many, the biggest worry is whether the corps will heed appeals to rethink—or significantly elaborate on—the proposed construction of storm-surge barriers. The current plan includes a network of floodwalls, seawalls, elevated promenades, deployable flood barriers and 12 permanent storm gates that would be built along tidal straits and rivers in New York and New Jersey.
The plan has even raised hackles at another federal agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA, its National Marine Fisheries Service and a phalanx of environmental advocates argue that such barriers, whether placed miles from the coast or close by, could imperil fish habitats and broader ecosystems and that more study is needed on potential impacts.
