By Victor Tine
Staff writer
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PLUM ISLAND — State environmental officials have revoked Newbury's authorization allowing island property owners to bulldoze sand in front of their houses.
Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Regional Director Eric Worrall issued the revocation Tuesday in a letter to Marc Sarkady, president of the Plum Island Foundation.
The consequences of the revocation, if any, were not immediately clear, since the bulldozing was completed over the weekend.
Worrall's letter says doing the work "without first obtaining the proper permits will be deemed in violation of (environmental) regulations and subject to enforcement." The letter does not specify what form the enforcement would take.
DEP spokesman Edmund Coletta said he could not comment on whether the agency will take enforcement action or what it might entail.
"We're still reviewing the matter," he said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is also reviewing the project to decide whether federal enforcement action is appropriate.
Army Corps officials sent the Plum Island Foundation a letter Jan. 7, warning that the bulldozer work required a federal permit in addition to state approvals. In response to the letter, the foundation filed an application; the Army Corps has not issued a permit.
The weekend beach scraping operation was conducted under an emergency certification issued Jan. 7 by Newbury Conservation Agent Doug Packer.
Beach scraping involves pushing sand from the low waterline up the beach to the primary dune. The practice, once fairly routine on Plum Island, is banned in Massachusetts.
Operating on behalf of a number of owners of properties south of Plum Island Center, the Plum Island Foundation hired a bulldozer to carry out the beach scraping.
In his letter, however, Worrall wrote that the emergency certification was "improperly granted."
Worrall reiterated DEP's position that "the process known as beach scraping changes the form of the beach and can actually increase erosion of the primary dune and vulnerability of landward structures — including the homes Plum Island residents are trying to protect."
On Jan. 3, Plum Island Foundation Director Robert Connors sent Packer a letter citing beach erosion damage caused by a Dec. 26 storm and proposing remedial measures, including "as a last resort, move sand washed from the coastal dune/beach during pedestrian traffic and storms back to the previously existing dune system."
"In order to take appropriate steps necessary to prevent irreparable damage to the environment or a serious threat to life or safety," Connors wrote, "the Plum Island Foundation on behalf of coastal property owners seeks an emergency certificate to implement the preventative, non-structural practice of beach scraping as a method of erosion control and conduct other emergency business for the protection of properties and people of Plum Island... ."
After Packer issued the emergency certification, which technically went to "individual property owners," state environmental agencies had seven days in which to intervene. Packer and Connors interpreted the seven-day period as expiring Jan. 14. The bulldoze work began Jan. 15.
But DEP said the clock did not begin ticking on Jan. 7, but on Jan. 10, the first business day following the issuance of the certification. In addition, Coletta said, the weekend and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday do not count in computing the seven days. Thus, the deadline for intervention was yesterday.
But DEP officials did not address a sentence in its own appeals procedures that states DEP review "shall not operate to stay the work permitted by the emergency certification unless the department specifically so orders."
In addition to Worrall's revocation of the certification, DEP Regional Director Richard Chalpin sent a separate letter to Newbury Selectmen Chairman Joseph Story seeking the town's cooperation in the future.
"We hope that all parties will commit to working together collaboratively rather than independently of one another and in a manner that ensures that actions taken comply with all applicable local, state and federal regulations," Chalpin wrote.
He reminded Story that the state "has invested significant financial resources to assist the residents of Plum Island to deal with ongoing erosion issues."
