Study to take critical look at Provincetown's West End breakwater

For those without boats, it’s the only link between the West End of Provincetown and Provincetown’s long sandy fingertip, Long Point. But the West End breakwater — the Long Point connection — could be the source of environmental trouble that has made its presence questionable to salt marsh scientists and, now, town leaders.

On Monday the selectmen voted to begin a feasibility study that will take a closer look at the potentially harmful effects the breakwater is having on the extensive salt marsh system in the West End. Built 100 years ago to protect the harbor from storm surge and sand deposition in the case of a breach of the Long Point spit at Wood End, the stone dike, experts say, could be depriving the marsh of beneficial tidal flow and blocking the passage of fish between the wetlands that serve as their nurseries and the open waters of the harbor.

“The whole feasibility study would include a study of whether there’s an impediment that’s impacting the resource and what improvements might be made to the breakwater itself to restore the flow,” said David Gardner, assistant town manager. Gardner said the study, which will be conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers using federal grant money, was first proposed back in 2006 but could not be undertaken by the Army Corps at that time due to a lack of funding. It resurfaced last month when the Army Corps contacted the town again and said the funding, earmarked for salt marsh restoration projects, had become available.

“There is little risk in signing off on it,” Town Manager Sharon Lynn told the selectmen on Monday.

At least one selectman, however, expressed doubts about tinkering with the breakwater, also known as the Long Point dike. John Santos, the only nay vote in the board’s 3-1 approval, wondered whether the structure has caused real harm to the salt marsh and questioned Shellfish Constable Tony Jackett to that effect.

Jackett said he did not know but pointed to general research on the chronic troubles suffered by salt marshes that have been plugged up.

“Massachusetts at one time destroyed 50 percent of its salt marshes. No doubt that contributed to declining fish stocks,” Jackett said. The West End marsh, he added, is “a very important salt marsh. Any improvement to its original state would be an improvement to our economy.”

Local scientists have been working over the last 10 years to undo some of the damage caused by man-made structures to salt marshes. In 2002 National Seashore ecologist John Portnoy spearheaded an effort to restore tidal flow to East Harbor by opening the culverts connecting it to Cape Cod Bay. More recently the Seashore and the town of Wellfleet have worked together to find a way to restore tidal flow to the Herring River, which is choked off from Wellfleet Harbor by a dike.

Seashore Supt. George Price gave his blessing to the West End breakwater proposal three years ago and continues to support it.

“Since its construction, modern coastal geomorphological assessments have determined that the Wood End barrier beach system was more stable when it was unrestricted by the dike,” Price wrote in his original letter approving of the study.

“Partial opening” of the breakwater would help to re-establish the natural ebb and flow of the salt marsh, Price said. Also, “A larger opening [in the breakwater] would re-establish fish access and probably improve recreational fishing for these species at the dike and throughout the harbor.”

Dennis Minsky, chair of the Provincetown Conservation Commission, acknowledged it was early in the process but said the study “sounds like a good thing.

“The whole reason for the dike has always been a bit of a puzzlement to me,” Minsky said. It’s an artificial barrier, and though it’s permeable it is not known how much saltwater is actually able to penetrate it and reach the marsh, he said.

“Certainly bringing things back to their natural state or closer to a natural state would be a good thing,” he said. Modifying the breakwater “would be a great thing if it could increase the productivity of the marsh.”

But Minsky added that “any change of that magnitude would have to come before the conservation commission.”

What the study will end up recommending is anyone’s guess at this point, but Gardner was quick to allay concerns that access to Long Point would be cut off by any future modifications to the breakwater.

In conversations with Larry Oliver of the Army Corps, Gardner said he had mentioned the popularity of the breakwater with hikers and sightseers. “He was quick to reassure me that access across the breakwater would be considered and would not be eliminated by any of their alternatives,” Gardner said.

Those alternatives could range from installing culverts in the breakwater to removing chunks of it to allow more water to move through, and possibly capping the structure with a bridge, but it’s too early in the process to know for sure.

The selectmen also expressed concerns about the financing of the project. The first $100,000 of the study will be covered by the grant, but the town will have to pay half of any additional study costs. And any subsequent design and construction work will be covered up to 75 percent by the federal government, leaving the remaining 25 percent to be financed by the town.

“Presumably we would have to appropriate some funds for some improvements,” Gardner said. Those appropriations would have to be approved by Town Meeting.