By Dave Rogers
Staff writer
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PLUM ISLAND — Emergency measures to help shore up four Plum Island houses were approved by the Newburyport Conservation Commission yesterday. The action allows for the rapid placement of elaborate sand barriers, called coir envelopes, between the houses located on the Newburyport side of the island and the surging ocean.
Newburyport Mayor Donna Holaday said yesterday afternoon that the Conservation Commission approved emergency certification, allowing work to begin quickly. She added that she received an OK from state environmental officials to proceed, as well.
Residents will be footing the bill for the emergency work, estimated to cost in the "thousands," Holaday said, but the city approval allows the work to begin immediately.
NETCO Construction Project Managers out of Lexington has been hired to install the coir envelopes along the houses on 53rd, 55th and 57th streets.
NETCO president David Lager said that the first series of 25-foot-long coir envelope segments will be placed around the house belonging to Clare Dunphy and Dr. Sadru Hemani at 30 55th Street. The modern beach house was chosen first because it is in the most immediate danger of tumbling into the ocean, he said.
Work is expected to begin tomorrow or Friday, with the entire project expected to take two or three weeks, Lager added.
Coir is a biodegradable material manufactured in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India that's extremely hard to break. Weighing many tons, the envelopes can last as long as five to seven years if conditions are right.
However, Lager said coir is susceptible to sunlight and can be damaged by debris crashing into it from the ocean.
NETCO was hired two years ago by neighboring Newbury to install 2,500 feet of coir envelopes to stabilize a dune and protect the town center beach.
Newbury Selectman Joe Story said much of the coir envelope was rendered useless within two years because of exposure to sunlight. But Story said that the envelope proved to be a very valuable stop-gap measure until the Army Corps of Engineers deposited approximately 120,000 cubic yards of sand along 2,500 feet of shoreline to replenish the rapidly disappearing beach in October.
"We were very pleased with the performance (of the envelope)," Story said.
Word of the impending emergency work comes after an intense 36-hour period for Dunphy and Hemani. Their house stands at the end of 55th Street, along a stretch of beach where the city dumped 2,500 cubic yards of sand earlier this fall in an attempt to protect homes in the neighborhood. But it took only a few weeks for most of the sand, which cost $75,000 to buy and spread, to disappear. By Monday, a dune that once surrounded Dunphy and Hemani's house was virtually gone.
More than 30 years ago, when Dunphy and Hemani bought the house, there was plenty of sand between their property and the ocean. But over the years, the sand has washed away at an alarming rate, accelerated when the south jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River breached, giving currents unfettered access to the Plum Island shoreline.
Earlier this week, city officials, including Holaday, the building inspector and fire Chief Stephen Cutter, visited Dunphy and Hemani's house, worried that an impending high tide could send it into the ocean. The city shut off water and sewer connections to the house and ordered electricity to be cut off during high tide.
However, the high tide that concerned them proved to be less powerful than first feared, due to a change in wind direction.
"I was extremely grateful for the property owners that the winds shifted to the west instead of the east," Holaday said.
But with the winter season just beginning, the potential for more powerful storms to finally push the house into the ocean, no doubt, has city officials and the homeowners crossing their fingers.
Holaday acknowledged that the coir envelopes are only a temporary measure, buying much-needed time until repairs to the jetty can be made. She said the city needs to begin pressing the federal government for funds to help repair the jetty.
"That's what really needs to happen to have an impact on the island," Holaday said.
