Like many people, I went to the beach over the 4th of July holiday - and I wish I was still there, as the heat settles in for another day, straining tempers, health, air conditioners, and New York City's electricity grid.

Happy as I was splashing in the waves on Fire Island, I still took time to notice the condition of the beach and inspect the sand bags up along the dune line. There was substantial beach erosion last winter when the New York coastline was battered first by Tropical Storm Ida in November and then by a devastating nor'easter in March. Twice President Obama declared it a federal disaster area. In parts of Robert Moses State Park more than 100 feet of beach were lost over the winter. Communities further east along the island found that much of the sand pumped from offshore last summer to restore the beaches has already washed away. The beach replenishment project was primarily funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of a plan to preserve the barrier islands protecting the south shore of Long Island.

The National Park Service is working on a new general management plan for the Fire Island National Seashore, involving joint stewardship with local, country and state agencies, and including responses to climate change and rising sea levels. The process involves research and monitoring to understand how the natural systems respond to climate change, and proactive planning and adaptation to the effects that may be realized from climate change, including the loss of shoreline and altered ecosystems. www.nps.gov/fiis/parkmgmt/generalmanagementplan.htm

With an active hurricane season predicted this year, local residents are concerned about the potential damage to homes and beaches from storm surges washing over the dunes. Though the water on Fire Island seemed pretty cold, overall water temperatures are getting warmer higher, which affects hurricane development, as well as marine life. Ocean surface temperatures around the world were the warmest on record for the month of June, according to federal scientists. The hottest spots were the north Pacific south of Alaska, along the U.S. West Coast and the Atlantic Ocean off New England.
www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/08/16/73692/junes-record-ocean-warmth-worries.h...

One of my favorite beach treats is a lobster dinner, but few lobsters are available from New York waters. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has called for a 5 year moratorium period on lobster fishing south of Massachusetts' Cape Cod due to overwhelming environmental and biological changes. "There has been a widespread increase in the area and duration of water temperatures above 20 degrees C throughout Southern New England inshore waters, and long term trends in the inshore portion of SNE show a pronounced warming period since 1999. Prolonged exposure to water temperature above 20 degrees C causes respiratory and immune system stress, increased incidence of shell disease, acidosis and suppression of immune defenses in lobsters". Technical Committee Report on Recruitment Failure in the Southern New England Lobster Stock, www.asmfc.org/

A special edition of Science magazine (June 18) describes a variety of changes in the oceans, including acidification and other chemical alterations, mostly due to human fossil fuel combustion, fertilizer use and industrial activity. www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pdf_extract/328/5985/1497 According to John Bruno, an associate professor of marine sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: "We are becoming increasingly certain that the world's marine ecosystems are reaching tipping points", adding, "We really have no power or model to foresee" the impact. The oceans are acting as a heat sink for rising temperatures and have absorbed about one-third of the carbon dioxide produced by human activities. The average temperature of the upper level of the oceans has increased more than 1 degree F over the past 100 years, and global ocean surface temperatures in January were the second warmest ever recorded for that month. www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/04/96966/report-oceans-deteriorating-health....

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has added Long Island's South Shore Estuary to its list of water bodies either impaired or threatened by pollutants. The federal Clean Water Act requires states to assess the quality of their waters and to report their findings every two years to the US Environmental Protection Agency. New York’s 2010 list identifies 828 instances in which a pollutant is causing an impairment of a water body that keeps it from supporting its “designated use” for drinking water, swimming and recreation, fishing or other activities specified by the state. The most common pollutants causing impairment include pH (21% of impairments), PCBs (14%), dissolved oxygen (13%), phosphorus (13%) and pathogens (11.5%). The list also notes the most common sources of water pollutants, including urban/stormwater runoff (255 impairments), contaminated sediment (222), air pollution, including acid rain (183), municipal sources (100), and combined sewer overflows from systems that capture both domestic sewage and stormwater (75). A complete list is available at www.epa.gov/region02/water/waterbodies.

New York City's Jamaica Bay is already heavily polluted, and has also been losing its salt marshes due to rising sea levels. There are four sewage treatment plants located around the bay dumping about 250 million gallons of wastewater per day, releasing high levels of nitrogen, suffocating the fish and poisoning the shellfish. Hazardous wastes and chemicals also wash into the bay from city streets and the JFK airport. Recent court orders required the City to upgrade the sewage treatment plants to reduce the nitrogen pollution load in the 31 square mile bay, which is cut off from the flushing action of the ocean by the Rockaway Peninsula. In February 2010, Mayor Bloomberg, DEP, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other environmental stakeholders announced an agreement to improve the overall water quality and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay through $115 million of investments over the next decade. These investments, along with $95 million of capital projects will cut nitrogen discharges into Jamaica Bay in half. www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/10-61pr.shtml

People are also worried about the possibility of oil from the Gulf of Mexico being carried up the east coast by ocean currents. It is hard not to think about what the New York beaches might look like if tar balls and oil scum started appearing in the surf. Officials in the area met in June to discuss disaster preparedness plans in the event of a worst case scenario.

On July 26 I participated in an event 'Hands Across the Sand' calling for protection of oceans, and coastal communities, economies and ecosystems, from unsafe offshore oil drilling - and for a clean energy future. The national event was initiated by a Florida surfer and restaurant owner in response to the BP oil contamination showing up on Gulf of Mexico beaches, and supported by local organizers. www.handsacrossthesand.com I went to Rockaway Beach, but there were similar events on other New York beaches and around the country.

Actually there is a possibility that a new wind power system about 13 miles off the Rockaways will provide clean energy for New York. Con Edison and the Long Island Power Authority have been working with various state entities on developing a proposal for a project that would help meet Governor Paterson’s goal for the state to meet 45 percent of its electricity needs through improved energy efficiency and renewable sources by 2015. http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/environment/20100624/7/3298/