The Coastal Erosion Threatening NY and NJ

Brian Lehrer (0:09)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now we'll talk about the threat to beach erosion or the threat of beach erosion in our area. It's our Health and Climate Tuesday segment. Last month's nor'easter battered beaches on Long Island, including Tobi Beach and Oyster Bay, the east end of the city of Long Beach, Smith Point County Park in Suffolk County and more, and the Jersey Shore saw some of the worst erosions since Hurricane Sandy, according to some of the local officials there. So we're going to get a little into what made this storm so destructive and where all that sand went. Towns, counties, and the Army Corps of Engineers have spent years and so many dollars putting it there. And as sea levels rise, the ocean has a head start on every storm now. So what can a single storm tell us about where our coastline is headed? Let's ask Jace Bernhardt, Associate Professor of Geology, Environment and Sustainability at Hofstra University. Professor Bernhardt, thanks for coming on for this. Welcome to WNYC.

Jase Bernhardt (1:14)

Good morning. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer (1:15)

And listeners, we can take some input from you if you live or work or play near the water on Long Island or the Jersey Shore, anywhere else along our coast.

What have you seen at your beach since last month's nor'easter, and maybe more pertinent to the climate angle we're doing here? What have you seen longer term over a period of years, or even generations, if your family has been there a long time? There's always beach erosion after storms, but how is it changing in the era of warmer climates, and higher seas? 212-433 WNYC, in your experience. 212-433 9692, call or text. So Professor, sea level in our region, I see, has been rising faster than the global average. Why is that?

Jase Bernhardt (2:09)

Right. Well, a big impact on that is so-called glacial rebound.

So the coastal plain here, New York City, Long Island, into New Jersey is on the margin of the Alaska glaciation. And that area actually rose up. But then as the glaciers retreated, this area is beginning to sink back down. So then in comparison to the rising sea levels, you have enhancement of the overall increase in local water levels in relation to our land here immediately on the coast in the tri-state region.

Brian Lehrer (2:41)

And so is climate change, I'm just going to ask you flat out, is climate change making Nor'easters more damaging?

Jase Bernhardt (2:49)

That's a challenging question to answer. I hate to give that. But you know, there's different facets of Nor'easters, right? So of course, the concern here we're talking about today is the storm surge and coastal flooding and beach erosion.

And as you mentioned already, just regardless of storms increasing intensity or not, if you have a higher sea level to work with, they're just going to be more impactful in terms of the coastal flooding and sea level rise. There's some sense that maybe the precipitation will get more extreme, especially from the stronger East Coast winter storms or Nor'easters over time. But in terms of the intensity of the storms, measuring some other ways like by the pressure of the storm, how low it gets, that's still up in the air. There's some different findings in both observational studies of past storms and then projections with climate models for future storms.

Brian Lehrer (3:36)

Long Island in particular has ocean beaches on the South Shore and sound beaches on the North Shore, and Oyster Bay officials reported heavy sand loss on both. I'm curious if those shorelines erode differently, Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, and does the sound side get too little attention?

Jase Bernhardt (3:57)

Absolutely. Of course, the South Shore of Long Island gets a lot of attention because it's so flat. It's a glacial outwash plain. It's just very flat compared to the North Shore, which has a little bit more terrain to a little more elevation.

But as we saw in events like this recent Nor'easter, the North Shore of Long Island, also some of the interior bays along the Jersey Shore, when you have these sort of shallow bays, the water can actually pile up more easily, and then you can get a greater water level rise into those interior shallow bays and therefore have potentially a worse coastal flooding and beach erosion in certain storms. It also depends on the wind patterns as well, and exactly how the coastline is oriented, and that can vary. Of course, storms is storm, and even during a storm, the wind direction can change, that can kind of shift where the worst flooding and damage can be even within the storm's period.