By Jean Mikle, APP Staff -

Standing at the edge of a cliff at the top of a damaged dune about 15 feet above the beach, Mayor Bill Curtis had a dire prediction about what could happen if more strong storms hit a shoreline that's already badly eroded.

"Two more storms like we had two weeks ago, and this will be gone," Curtis told Lt. Col. David Park, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District. "It is a safety issue. If a child were to get down on the beach, they wouldn't be able to get back up. At high tide they could drown."

Park and other members of the corps, along with representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection, were invited to visit Bay Head Friday by  Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Curtis.

 

PHOTO: Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., in Bay Head Borough, February 2021. Click here or on image above to view an APP photo gallery. (APP photo by Doug Hood) 

The agenda: To encourage the corps and the DEP to work together to find a solution to quickly repair beaches in Bay Head — and other areas of the Jersey Shore —  that suffered severe erosion during a strong nor'easter that struck the coast during the first week of February.

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Later most of the group walked two blocks down to Mount Avenue, where the ice-covered dune edge was even more precarious: the drop down to the beach was likely 18 feet.

"I can see the severity as far as the damage that was caused," said Park, whose Philadelphia office is responsible for projects in Ocean County. "I am empathetic to the needs."

But he said the corps does not believe that the damage caused by the nor'easter would qualify as "an extraordinary event," the designation the corps must meet before it can place sand on badly damaged beaches before scheduled "renourishment" projects.

That means the corps does not plan to come in and fix the damage this time around, he said.

Renourishment happens on a periodic basis for 50 years after the corps completes a major beach replenishment, like the the nearly $130 million project to expand beaches and build dunes from Manasquan to Barnegat Inlets that was finished in 2019.

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But the next planned renourishment in northern Ocean is scheduled for fiscal 2022, which begins Oct. 1. Keith D. Watson, a senior project manager for the Army Corps, said actual work likely would begin in 2022, as it takes time for engineering and design, and to get on the schedule for dredge barges and other large equipment needed to complete the work.

In between the corps' scheduled renourishments of beaches, the costs of making repairs after storms is normally borne by the state and local municipalities. 

PHOTO: Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., in Bay Head, NJ. Smith invited the Army Corps of Engineers to survey storm erosion damage during a tour of the Ocean County beach on February 12, 2021. (APP photo by Doug Hood)

Park said the Army Corps can provide technical assistance to state and local officials, but does not have funding available for repairs to Jersey Shore beaches 

Smith asked Park if there was any way the corps could return to the northern Ocean County coastline earlier if emergency funding was available.

"Is there any discretion in the law?" Smith asked. "We could work to try to get it," he said of potential emergency funding. 

At a meeting in Bay Head Borough Hall held after officials viewed the damage, the corps and DEP committed to work together on a solution to the safety issue in Bay Head, according to Mary McDermott Noonan, Smith's chief of staff, although how any fix would be funded remains unclear. A meeting to discuss potential fixes is scheduled to be held Thursday, she said.