Testimony for NY City Council Hearing 12/1/22
Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts
Sam Jackson
Metro Flood Defense
My name is Sam Jackson, I am co-president of Metro Flood Defense and a member of the NY NJ Storm Surge Working Group. I will start by saying that my colleagues and I are longtime admirers of the Billion Oyster Project. I harvest oysters recreationally and I have seen firsthand how effective oyster beds can be in cleaning harbor waters. Metro Flood Defense and the Storm Surge Working Group support nature based solutions and we believe that green systems like oyster beds are a key element contributing to the flood defense of New York Harbor. But, they can only protect against small storms, not extreme events like Superstorm Sandy.
To protect our region from extreme storms and rising sea levels, the so-called gray and green communities (engineers and conservationists) will need to work together much more closely. The perimeter walls and levees favored by the Corps and the Mayor's Office have many inherent flaws, including limiting access to, and destroying the openness of nature-based waterfront parks that have been added to New York City’s waterfront over the past fifty years. At the same time, locating walls between waterfront parks and nearby protected buildings would allow those parks to be inundated with sea water, killing trees and other vegetation and impounding flood waters and precipitation behind 20 foot walls. The Corps' and the Mayor's plan would also leave many neighborhoods completely unprotected for generations to come.When it comes to protecting our region from extreme storm surges, we believe there is one solution that far outweighs the rest. That solution takes advantage of the natural geographic setting of New York City and its Harbor. All 500-plus miles of NYC coastline flood through two openings adding up to only six miles in width (Lower Bay/Verrazano Narrows and Throggs Neck, western Long Island Sound). And that’s not to mention hundreds more miles in NJ and up the Hudson River that also flood through those same openings. Taking advantage of this geography and blocking storm surge from even entering the harbor is the only cost effective and non-destructive solution for the next 100 years. This is why we firmly believe a layered defense will prevent the next storm from the scale of catastrophic destruction to our region caused by Sandy.Metro Flood Defense and the Storm Surge Working Group call for a system of “layered defense” that takes advantage of these natural topographic features and is designed to protect virtually the entire metro region for the next century and beyond from storm surges and sea level rise. This proposal is based in part on the experience of numerous flood barrier systems built in the U.S. (Stamford CT, Providence RI, New Bedford MA, New Orleans LA) and overseas (London UK, The Netherlands, Venice Italy, St Petersburg Russia), and input from experienced Dutch engineers who enjoy the world’s longest track record of protecting major population centers from storm surges and sea level rise.This layered defense alternative’s three main components include:
Offshore movable sea gates, opened for 99.9% of the time during settled weather that take advantage of the unique geography of the metropolitan area and allow for the Dutch principle of “shortening the coastline.” protecting several hundreds of miles of shoreline with only a few miles of moveable offshore barriers —either a six-mile Outer Harbor Barrier stretching from Breezy Point to Sandy Hook or a shorter barrier stretching from Coney Island to Staten Island, combined with a one-mile long movable barrier near the Throgs Neck Bridge.
Low onshore levees or dunes of a few feet in height to protect against routine flooding and slow sea level rise.
Green systems —Natural defenses, including rehabilitated wetlands and oyster beds to dampen wave action while also improving water quality and estuarine ecosystems.
We invite any and all elected officials, community groups and stakeholders to continue this discussion with us. I will be available after the hearing and I have included my contact information in my written testimony. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sam Jackson
Co-President, Metro Flood Defense
508.330.2445
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