Quogue sits just updrift of Westhampton's groin field — a gentler shore than its famous neighbor, but a net-retreating one, with about 73% of its transects losing land. The village has spent two decades debating who should pay to hold it. Here's the record.
Rates are the USGS National Assessment of Shoreline Change (Open-File Report 2010-1118/1119, Hapke et al.). Quogue is inside the same federal Fire-Island-to-Montauk-Point reach as Westhampton but updrift of the groins, so it hasn't been starved as severely — the erosion is real but milder. For the exact rate at a specific parcel, see the address certificate.
Is Quogue losing its beach?
Yes, mostly — about 73% of USGS transects along Quogue erode long-term, averaging about −0.16 m/yr and reaching about −0.37 m/yr (−1.2 ft/yr) at the worst — gentler than Westhampton just downdrift, but still a net-retreating shore.
What is the Quogue shoreline-change rate?
The USGS long-term rate averages about −0.16 m/yr and reaches roughly −0.37 m/yr (about −1.2 ft/yr) at the fastest transect.
Did Quogue build an erosion-control tax district?
No — after years of nourishment proposals, the village board rejected a beach-erosion-control taxing district in 2019, and in 2020 the mayor pointed to joining the federal FIMP project as the most likely route to getting sand on the beach.
What FEMA flood zone is Quogue in?
The oceanfront is mapped Zone VE, the coastal high-hazard zone subject to breaking-wave action, in the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer.
Quogue's erosion is less dramatic than Westhampton's, and that has been its problem: not bad enough to force a federal rescue, bad enough that the beach keeps thinning while the village argues over who should fund the sand.
A local advocacy group reports the Quogue public-beach shoreline narrowed from about 1,000 ft to roughly 400 ft between 1976 and 2018 — an advocacy figure, not a federal measurement, but consistent with the net-eroding USGS trend above.
This page is the Quogue reach. The $99 Psammite certificate reads your exact address: the long-term erosion rate at your parcel, your storm-surge and FEMA exposure, the uncertainty band, and whether a licensed site review is warranted — built from the same federal record.