If you’re a shoreline property owner and are able to have an emergency breakwater of some sort put in, New York’s DEC says you can go ahead and do it and worry about the paperwork later.
Normally it takes a sheaf of permits to do work in a wetland or coastal area. But the Department of Environmental Conservation says it and the Army Corps of Engineers have issued a “Storm Recovery General Permit” to let emergency storm recovery work be done along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River without violating the Federal Clean Water Act and state environmental laws.
The order says if you have a situation that immediately threatens life, health, property or general welfare, you can do the work that’s necessary to stop it and then notify the authorities up to 24 hours later.