Jersey Shore town trying not to lose the man vs. nature fight on its eroded beaches
NORTH WILDWOOD, NJ — A New Jersey coastal town, embroiled in a legal battle with the state over the tens of millions of dollars it has spent trying — mostly in vain — to hold back the ocean, is now more vulnerable than ever.
A recent winter storm destroyed some of the sand dunes in North Wildwood, leaving small piles the size of a child’s sandcastle protecting a popular resort with $2.5 billion worth of private property, and at least that much in government buildings and infrastructure.
New Jersey has fined the city $12 million for unauthorized beach repairs that it says could worsen erosion, while the city is suing to recoup the $30 million it has spent over a decade transporting sand to the location.
As they wait for a judge to set the record straight amid climate change that brings rising sea levels and more intense storms, North Wildwood’s plight is a stark reminder that in the battle between man and nature, nature will win in the long run. term usually wins.
“This is the most vulnerable we’ve ever been,” Mayor Patrick Rosenello said. ‘We don’t even need a storm anymore to threaten us. During normal high tides, the water rises and runs through where this dune used to be.”
He walked along the beach where the rolling surf tore a hole in the dunes, completely sweeping them away for about twenty feet. On either side there were only piles of sand left that barely reached his knees. Elsewhere along the beach, dunes that were about 18 feet high last summer were less than half that height — and in many places much lower than that.
Previously, the city said it spent $21 million transporting sand for emergency beach repairs. That has since risen to $30 million, Rosenello said.
But hauling sand is no longer an option, the mayor said, adding that erosion has created bottlenecks along the beach that are too narrow for dump trucks to pass.
North Wildwood has asked the state for emergency permission to build a steel bulkhead along the most heavily eroded part of the beach — something previously done at two other spots.
But the state Department of Environmental Protection tends to oppose bulkheads as a long-term solution, noting that the hard structures often encourage sand scouring, which can accelerate and worsen erosion.
The agency favors the kind of beach nourishment projects that have been carried out for decades by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which pump vast amounts of sand from the coast onto eroded beaches, widening them and creating sand dunes to protect the terrain behind them.
Nearly all of New Jersey’s 125 miles of coastline has received such projects. But in North Wildwood, regulatory approvals and easements from private landowners have so far prevented that from happening.
Although the last two cities that had to sign a sand replenishment project did so eleven months ago, the project still needs a definitive green light. When it happens, the work will likely take two years to complete, officials say.
On several occasions, North Wildwood made emergency repairs, including constructing an earlier bulkhead without state approval. New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette warned the city last July that unauthorized work could have more serious consequences if it continues, including possible loss of future coastal protection funding.
LaTourette wrote that the city has “repeatedly engaged in destructive and illegal behavior in the name of tourism and, ostensibly, public safety. This is wrong and it must stop.”
The Ministry of Environmental Protection says heavy equipment moving sand has weakened the dunes and reduced their height, making the situation even worse and destroying the natural habitat of plants and animals.
But North Wildwood finds itself facing an existential threat with an unprotected coastline.
“Our fear is that there will be no more Wildwood,” said Maureen Lipert, who was taking a walk along the beach Monday. “All of North Wildwood could be wiped out if the water continues to flood.”
“The water will hit our hotels and motels,” added another resident, Kim Milligan. “New homes are built here every day. Our homes will be destroyed.”
After Superstorm Sandy devastated the Jersey Shore in 2012, the Army Corps began a program to rebuild dunes along virtually the entire coastline. Numerous scientific studies have found that oceanfront communities where they were already protected by dunes fared much better during Sandy than those that were not.
Sand replenishment has been the government’s favorite method for coastal protection for decades. Critics say it is inherently wasteful to keep pumping sand ashore that will inevitably wash away. But Congress continues to appropriate funding for such work, arguing that it is effective in protecting life and property, not to mention sustaining the crucial tourism industry.
Milligan, who lives a few blocks inland from the ocean, only half-jokingly found a potential silver lining if the worst were to occur in North Wildwood.
“I have access to the beach,” she said.
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AP video journalist Tassanee Vejpongsa contributed to this story.
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Follow Wayne Parry on X, formerly Twitter, at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
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