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Town’s Natural Resources Department seeks ECHO grants for Madaket erosion design and harbor modeling
Summary
Natural Resources staff said the town is submitting two ECHO 1 Stop grant requests: a 30% concept‑design for Madaket Beach erosion mitigation and a numerical modeling study of Nantucket Harbor and its barrier beach; the Madaket summary cited 19 feet/year erosion over the last three years.
The Town of Nantucket’s Natural Resources Department told the Coastal Resilience Advisory Committee it is pursuing two grant applications through the state’s ECHO 1 Stop portal to advance local coastal‑resilience work.
Leah Hill, Natural Resources staff, summarized the first application as a Madaket Beach erosion mitigation project that would fund 30% design work, stakeholder engagement, alternatives assessment and concept selection. Hill said the Madaket location is a high‑priority south‑shore site that has "lost 19 feet to erosion each year over the last 3 years," noting the area contains ecological and recreational assets and a National Grid cable and transformer in the parking lot that could be affected.
The second application would fund numerical modeling of Nantucket Harbor and the town’s seven‑mile barrier beach system to determine where breaches are most likely and what impacts breaches would have on tidal circulation and downtown inundation. Hill said the modeling project was identified in the 2021 Coastal Resilience Plan as Project 4‑4 and that economic impacts were omitted from this year’s ask to keep the proposal competitive.
Hill characterized both grant asks as preliminary; they are intended to support data collection, alternatives assessment and concept design rather than permitting or construction. The department will coordinate with partners (the Conservation Foundation and the Trustees were mentioned) and said it will wait to see whether the state selects either application.
Next steps: town staff will submit the ECHO portal applications and notify the committee of any award outcomes. If funded, the Madaket grant would move the town to 30% design and additional public engagement on mitigation alternatives.
