Letters

About 15 years ago, I pointed out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the town supervisor the problem with the Shinnecock Inlet:

The incoming tide on the ocean comes from the east. After the 1938 development of the inlet and the years following, the inlet took on a diagonal slope. I believe the Southampton side eroded considerably, the Hampton Bays side remained stable, and the rock jetties were installed north-south for navigation purposes. Since then, the Hampton Bays side of the inlet has been in peril.

Further, as an avid boater, I noticed when I fished the incoming tide that if I started my drift a quarter to a half mile south of the inlet, I would drift west, past the west jetty, then as I drifted toward the north I would begin drifting east.

My theory suggests that the jetty on the west side of the inlet is not long enough nor angled correctly to counter the incoming tide, much to the effect of the protective sandbars shown on some of the pictorials of the inlet development.

Rich Romanski

Hampton Bays