North Wildwood suffers from serious beach and dune erosion. (Photo courtesy of Wildwood Video Archive)
Major plans for replenishing North Wildwood’s storm-eroded shoreline have fallen through because neighboring communities refuse to share the sand from their wide beaches, New Jersey’s environmental commissioner revealed in a letter Friday to local mayors.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection had been working with North Wildwood and surrounding towns since 2017 on the beach replenishment plan – known as the Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet Coastal Storm Risk Management project.
However, the project has collapsed amid an impasse among the towns over sharing their sand to help restore North Wildwood’s depleted beaches, NJDEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette wrote in a letter to the mayors of North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Lower Township.
“Unfortunately, after years of costly engineering work and many attempts by DEP to help resolve local disagreements, the Project reached an impasse necessitating its termination,” LaTourette wrote.
A deadline for the project set by the Army Corps of Engineers has now passed, prompting the federal agency to redirect the funds elsewhere, LaTourette told the mayors.
“Due to this local impasse, I was informed today by Colonel Jesse T. Curry, Commander of the North Atlantic Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that the USACE has officially suspended work on the Project due to a lack of support from the City of Wildwood and the Borough of Wildwood Crest in constructing the congressionally authorized project,” LaTourette said.
Ever since Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore in October 2012, local, state and federal officials have been trying to craft plans for replenishing North Wildwood’s severely eroded beaches and dunes.
The idea was for Wildwood and Wildwood Crest to help their neighbor by sharing sand from their wide beaches. Plans also called for construction of a continuous protective dune system across all four municipalities along Five-Mile Island.
Those plans, though, have been abandoned now that Wildwood and Wildwood Crest have balked at allowing sand to be taken from their beaches and placed along North Wildwood’s eroded shoreline, according to LaTourette.
“Despite prior commitments, the Borough of Wildwood Crest and the City of Wildwood will not proceed with the project by using excess sand accumulated on the beaches of Wildwood and the Crest in order to reconstruct the eroding beach in the city of North Wildwood and construct a continuous protective dune system across all four municipalities,” LaTourette wrote, also referring to Lower Township.
North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday that he had not seen LaTourette’s letter yet and could not comment at this time.
Serious beach erosion continues in North Wildwood in recent months following a series of hurricanes that churned up strong surf and gusty winds while passing by the Jersey Shore hundreds of miles off the coast.
In the latest blow, there was additional beach and dune damage caused by the powerful nor’easter over the Columbus Day weekend. Some of North Wildwood’s dunes were sheared away by the waves, leaving mini-cliffs more than 5 feet high, the NJDEP reported in a storm damage report.
Hoping to restore North Wildwood’s beaches, the Army Corps of Engineers and NJDEP were planning to jointly fund the replenishment project and construction of the protective dune system at no cost to the local municipalities.
“The design and construction of this Project, which was authorized by Congress in order to provide Five-Mile Island with an engineered beach and dune system, was to be fully funded by the federal (65%) and state (35%) governments with no capital contribution from your municipalities required,” LaTourette wrote in his letter to the four mayors.
Despite the project falling through, LaTourette told the mayors that the Army Corps of Engineers and the NJDEP will continue to study other options to possibly replenish North Wildwood’s beaches and build the protective dune system along Five-Mile Island.
“Although this study is already underway, there is no guarantee that the effort will result in a viable new project. Each municipality should be aware that an offshore sand source, if available, would be significantly more expensive than the onshore sand source originally contemplated,” LaTourette said
He noted that even if a new and more expensive project could be justified economically, it would still require congressional authorization, as well as both federal and state funding – adding another layer of government bureaucracy to the beach and dune restoration plans.
