If your land disappears, what then?
When your land is swept away by storm-driven waves, how do you get it back?
Brett Pevear and his family are still trying to work that out.
The Pevears own a 300-foot-long piece of the narrow spit of sand known as Crescent Beach that separates Sodus Bay from Lake Ontario in Wayne County. A storm last spring eroded away a 50-foot-wide swatch of that parcel.
The storms this March knocked out 100 feet more. About half of the Pevears' property, which has been in his wife's family for 80 years, is now under water.
“It’s just unfortunate we had this wind with 14-to-16 foot rollers coming through. We’re not going to stop that,” he said.
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The widening of the breach at Crescent Beach, and the appearance of a new hole in a similar spit at north end of Port Bay, have sparked much discussion in recent weeks among shoreline property owners.
"It’s not just the homes that need to be protected. It’s the sandbar that protects Sodus Bay from Lake Ontario. That’s very important to the well-being of the bay," said C.J. Costich, who's had property on Crescent Beach for 50 years and just built a new cottage there.
Dave McDowell, president of Save Our Sodus, a very active citizens group, said a solution is needed. "I definitely think it needs to be plugged," he said. "It's impacting water quality in the bay. You can see the mud flowing in, and the water will bring in debris."
Watch: Drone view of the initial breach
Some along the shoreline see the damage as indicative of high water in Lake Ontario, something they fear seeing more of under the new lake-level plan that just went into effect. "We’re all kind of nervous about this Plan 2014 thing," Costich said.
These breaches, at least, are not the fault of the regulatory plan, Pevear observed.
"Honestly, this piece of property — the Crescent Beach area — has breached before over the past 100 years. It's not uncommon. I understand nature. It’s taken a few houses. There’s nothing you can do about it."
But it may be possible to restore the land once it's taken.
The gap at Port Bay was plugged last summer by tree stumps, logs and material that had been dredged from the bay channel, said Lindsey Gerstenslager, manager of the Wayne County Soil and Water District. That patch held during this year's storms but another breach opened up nearby. Discussions have begun to fill that one in the same way.
The Port Bay breach was repaired so quickly because the land is owned by the state, which eased design work and permitting. Government funding already in hand for another project was used to pay for the work, Gerstenslager said.
But because the Pevears' parcel is privately owned, he has been told he must devise a solution, pay for design work and obtain a permit himself. Federal or state grant money may well be available to cover much of the construction, Gerstenslager said.
Pevear talked with Gerstenslager and others last year about a temporary stump-and-log patch of his family's property, but it didn't happen.
He's beginning another round of discussions now. But Pevear said his family can't afford to restore the land themselves — he thinks it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — and he's balking at the idea of laying out a good deal of money for engineering and permitting in the hopes of finding grants to pay for the actual work.
"I’m trying to figure out the correct flow. Everybody says 'Hey, there’s money out there.' I'm trying to get down to the nuts and bolts of who’s giving out this money, where are the right forms to fill out and what types of designs have been approved in the past," Pevear said.
He wants a clear answer from government agencies as to whether they will provide grants that will pay for a permanent fix. "If everybody that’s in control comes back and says you’re never going to get anything, I’d be happy with that answer," he said. "If the decision is I own a gaping hole, then I own a gaping hole"