NEWS RELEASE                                                      February 2, 2010

Contact: Jennifer Garvey

(631) 283-6055

TOWN APPEALS COASTAL EROSION RULING

Arguments will be heard Thursday before

the United States Court of Appeals

Attorneys for the Town of Southampton, its Board of Trustees and Sagaponack beachfront homeowner, Cynthia Ireland, hope to persuade the United States Court Of Appeals this Thursday morning in New York City that the August 28, 2008 decision of the lower United States District Court dismissing their beach erosion claim against Suffolk County was erroneous.

The Town's lawsuit seeks to have the County repair the longstanding and serious erosion to significant portions of the Town shoreline resulting from the County's installation of the Shinnecock jetties in the 1950's and the Georgica groins in the 1960's. The Town believes that it adequately established at trial the well recognized coastal phenomenon that such manmade shoreline structures result in considerable and extensive erosion on their downdrift side and further, that although fully aware of such consequences, the County nevertheless failed in its continuing duty to provide the sand needed to maintain the health of such beaches. The Town will argue on Thursday that the lower Court was plainly wrong in finding that the Town failed to prove that the jetties and groins were a substantial cause of the complained of erosion.

If the Town's appeal succeeds, it would expect the County to undertake the necessary remedial steps to restore its beaches - for the economic health of the community and the safety and enjoyment of both the public and the wildlife, whose habitat has likewise been destroyed.