Legislators want beach funding restored

by: Jason Springer

Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 01:30:00 PM EDT

Senators Menendez and Lautenberg joined Congressmen Pallone, Sires, Adler and Rothman writing to President Obama regarding the possible removal of beach nourishment funding:

The four House members and two senators, all Democrats, are part of a bipartisan group of 30 coastal state lawmakers who've written to Obama about the matter.
They want him to reject a possible move by the White House's Office of Management and Budget to strike down $85 million for beach nourishment projects the US Army Corps of Engineers wants to fund through the stimulus package.

Last week, Congressman Adler fired off a letter to the Director of OMB following reports from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) that beach nourishment projects might be excluded:

Beach nourishment projects are shovel-ready and have a proven track record of creating jobs. My district relies on federal funds to protect homes and businesses, keep the beaches safe for our families, and repair shore lines that suffered through a long winter. A few of the ongoing issues we face on Long Beach Island include:
Beaches and dunes eroding at an alarming and seemingly increasing rate. Normal high tides now routinely reach and erode the base of the dunes in many places on the Island
Beach space is limited or, in some cases, non-existent.
Without adequate beach sand and dune protection, the Island is vulnerable to flooding from severe storms or hurricanes.
On behalf of my constituents in Ocean County, I urge you to maintain funding for beach nourishment projects. The money included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is necessary to conduct beach erosion studies, build groins and jetties to protect beaches from surf, storm surge and tidal currents, and long term nourishment efforts like pumping tons of dredged sand back onto eroded beaches.

The beach association invoked disasters past in their release:

The lessons of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and others have been quickly forgotten by OMB, or never learned. While professing to insist on Corps projects that reduce risk and have high benefit-to-cost ratios, they have denied funding to the very coastal restoration projects that will reduce the risk to lives and property - and reduce the American taxpayers' cost of storm recovery.
Beaches are coastal levees. OMB supports inland levees, but not those on the coast. Beaches provide nesting ground for endangered species. OMB supports environmental restoration projects, but not if they are on the coast. European countries have learned that sand is one of the tools to be used in adapting to rising sea levels. Apparently OMB is opposed to adaptation.

There certainly does seem to be inconsistencies in the policy. It seems pretty short sighted to not fund these projects in the short term, given the potential cost of disasters in the long term. But that's really never stopped the government before.

Jason Springer :: Legislators want beach funding restored