Flurry Of Appeals Filed After Approval Of Geotube Expansion Project

The Nantucket Land and Water Council is joining an appeal of the Conservation Commission’s recent approval of a 3,000-foot extension to the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund’s controversial erosion-control project at the base of Sconset Bluff—an approval that some Baxter Road residents are also appealing for a different reason.

“Without properly mitigating its negative impacts with the specific sand requirements that were determined to be adequate using their own data and supported by the Conservation Commission and Massachusetts DEP, the geotube project is a failure and has always been a failure,” NLWC executive director Emily Molden said.

Along with the NLWC—a longtime opponent of the geotextile tube project—plaintiffs include a group of homeowners on the east end of the island, including members of the Greenhill family in Quidnet, who have argued the erosion-control project accelerates downdrift erosion north of the project. Plaintiffs also include four directors of the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy, a group that has opposed the project since it was installed in 2014: Burton Balkind, D. Anne Atherton, Maureen Phillips, and Mary Wawro. The Coastal Conservancy as a whole is not listed as a plaintiff.

In a statement on Monday, the NLWC said it joined the appeal for several reasons, starting with the argument that the project has “clearly damaged the surrounding public beaches (at times eliminating a walkable beach in front of the structure) and accelerated erosion of the coastal banks to the north.” But the SBPF has rejected that argument.

“We remain confident in the Conservation Commission’s expanded erosion-control project approval,” SBPF board member Meridith Moldenhauer said in a statement. “We trust the DEP will affirm the commission’s thorough and well-supported decision. Our focus is on working collaboratively with the town and all stakeholders to advance a long-term coastal resiliency plan that protects Baxter Road and the surrounding community. We are working collaboratively with the town to address unresolved issues."

Several Baxter Road residents have also appealed the decision based on the requirement to pour nearly 106,000 cubic yards of sand on the project—a major sticking point between members of the commission and SBPF, and a requirement lambasted by SBPF attorney Chip Nylen as “punitive.”

One of those appeals filed last week by Baxter Road resident and SBPF donor Elizabeth Singer specifically calls out that requirement in the order of conditions. The appeal also seeks a superseding order from the state amending that requirement. Another appeal filed by Baxter Road residents William Cohan and Deborah Futter also challenges the sand requirement.

Moldenhauer said she was aware of those appeals, and said those challenges were not filed on behalf of SBPF.

“I just hope the community truly considers the audacity of asking Town Meeting to approve the use of our publicly owned beach for the construction of this project, when some of the project proponents themselves have appealed a permissive permit so that they can get out of nearly a decade of noncompliance with their last permit,” Molden, the executive director of the Nantucket Land and Water Council, said.

The ConCom approved the expansion in March, after months of public hearings, and five years after a similar expansion proposal was denied. The SBPF has long claimed the existing 950-foot project was installed as a pilot project that could be expanded to protect more of Baxter Road to the north and south, as well as Sankaty Head Lighthouse.

Throughout the public hearing process, the primary debate came down to the amount of mitigation sand the SBPF would be required to pour over the project to offset the risk of downdrift erosion—as well as the deficit in mitigation sand the SBPF did not pour over the existing project. In its March 20 order of conditions, the ConCom voted to require the SBPF to contribute 106,000 cubic yards of sand to make up the deficit—well above the 26,000 cubic yard deficit the SBPF alleged.

In addition to ConCom approval, the SBPF needs approval at the Annual Town Meeting next month for a license to proceed with the project on the public beach.

The action appeals the order of conditions to the state Department of Environmental Protections under the Wetlands Protection Act, requesting them to review the approval and issue a superseding order of conditions to either deny the approval or re-condition the expansion to address plaintiffs’ concerns over alleged environmental degradation. Since the ConCom conditions projects on both state and local regulations, there is still a possibility to appeal the approval to the Superior Court. The deadline to appeal the ConCom’s approval on the local level is May 19.

“The evidence submitted to the Conservation Commission during the public hearing was undeniable: the existing geotubes are degrading, and will eventually destroy the fronting beach,” Nantucket Coastal Conservancy President Burton Balkind said. “The same will happen with the expanded geotubes.”