Damaged dunes wait on federal funding for aid

It has been more than two months since the Veteran’s Day 2009 storm, or Nor’Ida as some have come to call it, did major damage to the area’s reconstructed beaches and dunes, and it is likely to be many more months before major efforts to reconstruct the beaches and dunes might possibly get under way, state officials told Bethany Beach Town Council members this week

Tony Pratt, Shoreline and Waterway Management administrator for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, visited with council members in Bethany on Monday, appealing for them to keep in touch with their legislators and push for federal funding to repair the beach to be included in upcoming budgetary allocations.

“I’m reaching out to every one of the communities about the beaches,” he told them. “I’m here to seek renewed and invigorated advocacy from you all.”

Pratt said estimates of the cost to repair the damage from Nor’Ida have been running around $40 million statewide, with detailed estimates for specific project areas yet to be released after a more extensive “serpentine survey” detailed the exact width and height of the remaining beach and dunes post-storm. While that figure may run high, he acknowledged, it will require federal funding to get the beaches restored to their engineered template.

While the construction of the projects has been termed as solidifying a 50-year commitment from the Corps to maintain them, that commitment is limited by the federal funding process, since the 50-year plan limits replenishment only to anticipated periodic renourishment (about every three years) and not to repair of damage from storms.

Due to the process the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses to select and fund projects, Pratt said gaining money for beach repair in Delaware this year will be a matter of garnering support for either a supplemental spending bill that would likely come no sooner than the spring, or waiting for the 2011-fiscal-year federal budget bills to be adopted with potential funding in there.

On the list of positives for Delaware project funding is the current presence of former Delaware senator and current U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. close to the process as President Barack Obama prepares his first budget recommendation since he took office.

Pratt said the Obama administration is likely to be the first since prior to the Clinton administration to support shoreline projects with funding in its budget recommendations.

Under negatives is a lack of Delaware legislators currently serving on the congressional committees that put forward related funding bills and the locally-targeted spending allocations most commonly called “earmarks.”

Pratt said Monday that the state beach projects have also fallen victim to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster damage tally procedures, which dictate that FEMA cannot consider damage to “federal” projects and property when calculating whether an area qualifies for disaster relief.

Under those procedures, the loss of sand and the manpower that created the reconstructed beach projects in Delaware is not part of the state’s damage total from Nor’Ida, significantly lessening its tally and making both Sussex and Kent counties ineligible for FEMA aid for the storm damage.

Pratt said Monday that while the state and Corps await word on whether funding for the Delaware beach projects to be fully repaired might be forthcoming in supplemental funding bills this spring or in budget bills later in the year, it is monitoring the movement of sand that was eroded into the sea by the storm, to determine exactly how much sand was truly lost to the system and how much is simply no longer on the dry beach where it was previously pumped.

He suggested efforts to perform intermediate repairs the beaches could begin in late February or early March, depending on when DNREC determines the benefit of having the sand offshore, where it reduces the impact of waves on the remaining beach and dune, has been fully exhausted. At that time, he said, the state would likely begin its own short-term repair efforts.

Full repair of the beach reconstruction project areas is not expected to begin until the fall at the earliest, he noted.

If supplemental funding were to come in early spring, he noted, bidding out the repair work and getting it ready to go would still take until early fall. If supplemental funding isn’t forthcoming this spring, and a regular budget request were to include funding for the projects, a fall 2010 start would still be the soonest that could be expected.

While some critics have suggested that the damage to the dunes indicates the strategy of reconstructing the beach is a failing one, Pratt – who also serves as the vice president of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association – said Monday that the projects are expected to be vulnerable in the first three years after their construction.

He also strongly asserted that the existence of the constructed dune is something that would – and will – save Bethany Beach and its neighbors from the kind of destruction to property, infrastructure and even lives that took place during the infamous 1962 storm, as well as in smaller storms in 1992 and 1998, when Bethany’s boardwalk was among the structures significantly damaged.

Repair and maintenance of beach projects is vital to the area, he noted, as the area is highly reliant on tourism for its economy and the loss of the beach is a loss of the kind of high-quality recreational experience that draws visitors to the Delaware shore.

If those visitors go elsewhere, he said, both rental and property values can be expected to drop, in addition to the loss in revenue for municipalities and businesses.

Pratt this week encouraged both local officials and residents to contact their legislators in support of funding for repair of the damage to the beach projects, and he received assurance from Bethany officials that they have and intend to remain in close contact with those legislators. He was to meet with officials in the area’s other beach towns throughout the coming weeks.