Winter storms over the past month have caused significant erosion directly in front of the island’s sewer beds off South Shore Road, with some areas losing as much as 35 feet.
Nantucket Sewer Director David Gray has been warily watching the situation as the waves have come within 110 feet of the fence at the edge of the beds which are critical to the island’s wastewater processing system.
“In the last week and a half we’ve lost some significant shoreline, upwards of 35 feet,” Gray told the Select Board last week. “We’ve seen some drastic impacts along the south shore, which in my 14 years out there I have not seen prior. The biggest difference is we’re seeing winter storms with southwest and east, southeast winds. Highly unusual.”
Gray said he has been in touch with a survey crew to get them out to the island “as soon as possible” to get a survey completed. There is a plan to relocate the three sewer beds closest to the ocean, Gray said, moving them inland if necessary and he has been in touch with the state Department of Environmental Protection about that possibility.
“One hundred and ten feet won’t take long, and that’s the part that scares me,” Select Board member Matt Fee said. “That could be a catastrophe.”
