Shoreline a Shambles After Heavy Rains Wash Away Round Pond Work

A project installed just last September to remove an old bulkhead and create a naturalized shoreline at the foot of Middle Line Highway and Round Pond just south of Sag Harbor has been swept away by a series of torrential rains this winter.

The project, which involved the installation of dry wells, rain gardens, and other steps to catch and delay the flow of rainwater and runoff into the freshwater pond, was simply overwhelmed by three torrential rains, two in December, and one in January, according to Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, who led the effort to see the project through to fruition.

“I’m not happy with this,” Schiavoni said this weekend. “We’ve had those kinds of rains before and we are going to have those in the future, and this thing needs to be able to take it.”

The project cost the town about $300,000 to construct, although $425,000 was earmarked from the Community Preservation Fund for the work.

The environmental consulting firm Nelson Pope Voorhis engineered the project, which was constructed, according to its specifications by South Fork Asphalt.

Schiavoni said the leftover funds could be used to repair the project and the town would not have to go out to bid again.

“There is a redesign. It is going to be reconstructed, and that work is starting this week,” Schiavoni said. “It’s going to be rebuilt, and it’s going to be rebuilt stronger, and have the ability to hold a greater capacity.”

Schiavoni said it was important that the project be completed soon, so that the plants would begin to shoot out roots come springtime.

The rains pulled out plants that still bore the cylindrical markings of their containers and washed sand and other debris down the hill, knocking out a silt fence that was supposed to protect the pond from a washout.

“That was a disaster,” said Dai Dayton, the president of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, which supported the work. “They were supposed to plan for the worst-case scenario, but it washed out after the first rain.”

The project has been discussed for years. The town was making headway on the project, but the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the effort. A year ago, the town held a pair of informal public hearings on the project, one in Southampton and one in Sag Harbor, before going out to bid on the job.

Nicholas Jimenez, the town’s public works capital project manager, described the project last winter as removing about 120 feet of paved road and replacing it with more than 1,500 plants, two rain gardens to absorb runoff, and a bioswale shaped like a zig-zagging stream to absorb more runoff.

The project was undertaken with the cooperation of the Southampton Town Trustees, who own the pond, and Sag Harbor Village, with the hope that it would become a model for similar projects throughout town.

“It’s sad,” said Dayton, “because this was a pilot project people should be looking to for guidance.”