Is Army Corps Doing More Harm Than Good Through Replenishment? - The Fisherman

Is Army Corps Doing More Harm Than Good Through Replenishment?

A recent article by Phil Stilton at Shore News Network after a Mother’s Day nor’easter washed away tons of replenished sand from Jersey Shore beaches asks whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach replenishment work at the Jersey Shore is causing more harm than good.  According to one coalition of access and environmental leaders, the answer is clearly yes.

The New Jersey Coastal Alliance was quoted in the Shore News Network article as saying how dangerous beach conditions created in the wake of coastal storms through the formation of steep sandy cliffs on the beach, which the media often refers to as having been formed by the storms.  “However, we believe the Army Corps of Engineers’ work has caused this situation, not coastal storms,” the alliance told Shore News Network.

“Our beaches normally have offshore sandbars that run parallel to the beach. There may be 2 or more of these bars as you go out from shore, each deeper than the next. As ocean swells some rolling in, the rule is that these swells break into waves when they reach a water depth less than 1.3 times the swell height,” the New Jersey Coastal Alliance noted, explaining how the destruction of these offshore sandbars is creating harsher conditions at the shoreline, the group says, which is causing more erosion than before the federal beach replenishment project.

According to Ross Kushner with New Jersey Coastal Alliance, 21 different groups joined together last fall in an official statement opposing additional state funding for beach replenishment, pointing out how beach replenishment has become an overused tool that provides a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

“Today, the Army Corps projects have buried these sandbars, creating a beach profile that goes from dry beach to deep water very quickly,” Kushner told Shore News Network, explaining how waves roll in unbroken with all their power intact.  “The waves carve at the beach face, creating sand cliffs, and cutting back at the new wall of sand,” Kushner said, explaining how eventually the ocean will recreate the sandbars, but it takes years. “Often just in time for the next “replenishment” project to destroy them,” Kushner added.

Kushner said all you have to do is look at New Jersey’s natural beaches like Island Beach State Park which have been free of meddling from development and restoration. Instead, beach dunes grow naturally and the offshore topography is designed by nature. “So, we believe this “erosion” has little to do with storms. Visit a more natural beach such as Island Beach State Park or Sandy Hook and little damage from these storms occurs,” Kushner said, adding “We must stop blaming the ocean for conditions that may be actually created by the Army Corps at a cost of hundreds of millions.”

In their official statement released last fall, the New Jersey Coastal Alliance said pumping additional sand along the beach will not mitigate the fact that sea levels are on the rise.  “After decades of pumping sand with a price tag over $1.5 billion, many replenished beaches are no better than they were, and in many ways, worse,” the official statement said.

In addition to the expense and overall effectiveness of continual beach resanding, the group-signed letter also pointed out a myriad of other problems with replenishment including:

  • Beach Access: There have been many well-documented cases of beach access being inhibited by a local town in NJ after getting a beach replenishment project.
  • Swimmer Safety: Often beaches become steep near the water’s edge after replenishment creating swimming hazards.
  • Poor Quality Sand: Famously, hundreds of discarded bomb fuses were pumped onto the beach in Surf City, NJ requiring a $25 million cleanup. In other cases, trash and garbage have been dredged up and placed onto beaches.
  • Harm to Marine Life: There is harm to marine life in both the borrow areas where the sand is taken from and on the beaches that are buried under thousands of cubic yards of sand.
  • Negative Recreational Impacts: There are impacts on recreation like fishing and surfing which are among the reasons that many people visit the beach in the first place.
  • Increased Development in the Coastal Zone: Development often increases after replenishment because people have a false sense of security from replenishment projects. This results in additional real estate value in the hazardous coastal zone.

Among the signers of the New Jersey Coastal Alliance statement in opposition to state legislation which proposes more tax dollars for beach replenishment were Joe Pallotto (President, Asbury Park Fishing Club), John Kravchak (President, Berkeley Striper Club), John Toth (President, Jersey Coast Anglers Association), Jerry Kelly (Access Coordinator, Shark River Surf Anglers) and Tim Surgent (President, StripersOnline.com.)

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