Vandalism Allegation Surfaces After Partial Collapse Of Geotubes At 'Sconset Bluff

The ‘Sconset Beach Preservation Fund claims that a portion of its geotube installation along the ‘Sconset Bluff has been intentionally vandalized, leading to a partial collapse of the erosion-control project. Video footage reviewed by the Current shows a long, straight, clean gash down the side of one of the geotubes, and several photos show further damage of a similar nature.

On the evening of January 31st, the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy, a local advocacy group long opposed to the geotube installation, posted drone footage on Facebook that appeared to show that a portion of the array had collapsed onto the beach.

Reached for comment on Monday, ‘Sconset Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF) representative Meridith Moldenhauer supplied a video taken from the beach showing the long slit along the tube and claimed that it was the result of vandalism, not a natural collapse.

“I have just contacted the Nantucket Police Department to file a police report because the geotubes did not fail; they were deliberately vandalized and cut,” Moldenhauer wrote in an email to the Current. “Our team was on site this morning and documented multiple intentional cuts with both video and photographs. We are extremely concerned and frankly shocked - this was a deliberate criminal act, and this kind of behavior cannot be accepted or minimized.”

The geotoube installation along the bluff, initially installed in 2014 after a series of storms ripped away large chunks of the beach, has been deeply controversial from the beginning. While there are no known documented instances of vandalism associated with the geotubes in 'Sconset, they have come under fire from a number of local advocacy groups and sparked intense pushback from members of the community over concerns that the installation could increase erosion along the beaches on either end of the array and require vast amounts of sand to properly maintain.

The geotubes are long geotextile bags filled with a slurry of sand and water that are designed to prevent erosion of the cliff face by buffering and redirecting wave action. Installed to protect the homes perched on the bluff above, the project has kept Baxter Road passable, forestalling an expensive relocation plan that could eventually require tens of millions to move the homes and utilities along the road farther from the water below.

In the video shared by Moldenhauer, a man standing by the geotube pans up and down the fracture using a phone camera, and pulls back a portion of the fabric to better show the slit. He can be heard saying “this looks like a clear cut, to me; someone cut it.”

Several photos show more gashes of a similar nature. Notably, the cuts appear to be both horizontal and vertical, and do not appear to correspond with any visible seams.

“We are mortified that someone would take such intentional and malicious action against the project,” Moldenhauer wrote. “We see this act of vandalism and violence as a criminal act that jeopardizes safety and property.”

Nantucket Police Department representative Lt. Angus MacVicar declined to comment or provide the police report. The Current has filed a public records request for the report.

Before seeing Moldenhauer’s video, Coastal Conservancy director D. Anne Atherton wrote in an email to town officials and the Current that, upon reviewing the drone footage, two separate coastal engineers expressed concern that the damage would be “challenging to repair.”

“We interpret this to mean that after 12 years in place, the existing geotubes are nearing the end of their service life,” she wrote.

Moldenhauer did not answer questions about the difficulty and cost of repairs.

After learning of the vandalism allegation, Atherton shared the following statement with the Current:

“We have now been notified that the collapse of the geotubes may be the result of vandalism. As much as the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy has been an opponent of seawalls on Nantucket’s open beaches, we vigorously condemn what appears to be a recent act of vandalism on the geotubes below the bluff in Sconset. There is no place in our community for acts like this.”

The town of Nantucket is partnering with SBPF on an expansion of the erosion control project, which is included on the warrant for this spring’s Annual Town Meeting. But the expansion has hit several snags, including lawsuits from island residents and SBPF’s long history of failing to deposit required sacrificial sand on the existing geotubes, which would mitigate any impacts on the beaches adjacent to the array.

“The Town is aware of a failure in the geotubes,” town communications director Florencia Rullo wrote in a statement to the Current. “We are evaluating the next steps. At this moment, we do not have further comments.”

The 3,000 foot expansion was approved by the Conservation Commission last March after years of debate that saw the Select Board purge Conservation Commission members critical of the project after a removal order for the existing project was issued in 2021. Town Meeting approval may not be easy to obtain this spring, given the existing opposition.

Photos taken on December 1st show the geotube array unharmed, meaning that any damage must have taken place in December or January.

Vandalism is a known issue for geotube installations, with multiple documented cases around the globe. Vandalism has also been raised as a concern on Nantucket, specifically with regard to geotubes along the ‘Sconset Bluff. Geotubes can also burst naturally from pressure.