District Engineers and the Beach Erosion Board concluded that the public 

 interest in the improvements was sufficient to warrant Federal assistance 

 to the extent of one-third of the costs applicable to the publicly owned 

 portions of the shore, in accordance with the policy established by 

 Public Law 727, 79th Congress. They recommended adoption of a project 

 by the United States authorizing Federal participation, subject to 

 certain conditions, to the extent of one-third of the first costs of 

 measures for the restoration and protection of the publicly owned 

 portions of the shore from Sea Bright to Seaside Park under plans com- 

 prising artificial placement of approximately 13,901,000 cubic yards of 

 sand on the shore to restore a protective beach generally 100 feet wide 

 at elevation 10 feet above mean low water, supplemented by groin con- 

 struction in the Sea Bright-Ocean Township section. The Beach Erosion 

 Board emphasized that periodic replenishment operations as required are 

 an essential part of the plan for maintaining the protective and re- 

 creational beaches, and providing for continued stability of the shore. 

 The Board considered the Sandy Hook section to be an integral part of 

 the shores to the south with respect to littoral processes, even though 

 it had been omitted from the project because its protection did not 

 appear justified on the basis of present use. The Sandy Hook shore has 

 been eroding slowly north of the seawall at the south end of the Govern- 

 ment Reservation. That erosion may be expected to continue, and if local 

 interests fail to provide artificial nourishment in conjunction with 

 construction of groins, as recommended on adjoining shores to the south, 

 erosion of Sandy Hook will be accelerated. 



The Chief of Engineers concurred generally in the views and re- 

 commendations of the Beach Erosion Board. 



BRADDOCK BAY STATE PARK, NEW YORK 



Braddock Bay State Park includes about one mile of publicly owned 

 shore in the central part of the southern shore of Lake Ontario. It 

 is located in the Town of Greece in Monroe County, about 7 miles west 

 of Rochester. It is thus conveniently located with respect to that 

 center, which has a population of 332,000. The combined population of 

 tributary counties is about 750,000. The State plans eventually to 

 develop the park with bathing beach, picnicking and parking areas and a 

 small-boat harbor. Pollution of the lake waters in the vicinity of 

 Braddock Bay is not considered sufficient to endanger the health of 

 bathers. The lake frontage of the study area is a low barrier beach 

 located between two low headlands about one mile apart. An outlet through 

 the beach was formerly narrower, but much of the barrier is now a sub- 

 merged bar and the main opening is about 1,600 feet wide . Two creeks 

 having a combined drainage area of about 77 square miles empty through 

 the bay. 



Lake Ontario is about 190 miles long and 50 miles wide. The mean 

 lake level for the months of March to December is about 2 feet above 

 the established low water datum (244.0 feet above the mean tide at New 

 York City). The highest lake stage and the highest monthly mean recorded 



78 



