Earlier this summer, a symposium was held to discuss an upcoming restoration for the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary. The plan is an intensive engineering project designed to combat practices that have destroyed most of the area wetlands and threaten the hundreds of species that live there naturally.
According to Marine Link, the conversation involves the New York District of the Army Corps of Engineers, who are working on the Comprehensive Restoration Plan, a project that has been in the works since 2009. These initiatives call for boat insurance coverage that accounts for long hours and a variety of tasks.
This gathering, entitled "Restoring the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary: Ensuring Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability in a Changing Future" took place on June 3 and covered the many different environmental targets of the plan.
These include making the water more accessible for boaters and swimmers, improving the water quality and removing all contaminated material and pollutants. The CRP will also be adjusted for flood control measures, which, in the wake of hurricane Sandy, have become a more immediate concern.
One of the presenters, Professor Philip Orton of the Stevens Institute of Technology, described the difficult truths that engineers will have to accept about flood prevention.
"One thing we can probably agree on is that there's no such thing as coastal protection in New York City," Orton said. "There can be risk reduction, and you can make it less likely that you'll get flooded, but you can't ever necessarily completely stop the chance of flooding."
Although complete protection may never be possible, this symposium is a step in the right direction.