North Wildwood defies a state order on repairing beaches battered by Hurricane Ian and nor’easter

North Wildwood’s iconic wide, sandy beaches were hit double barrel earlier this month by the remnants of Hurricane Ian followed by a nor’easter that ground the New Jersey Shore community’s beaches into cliffs of sand.

Town officials wrote to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection on Oct. 3 asking for an emergency authorization to install a 400-foot-long steel bulkhead, reshape dunes between 13th and 16th Avenues, tear out some decking, and erect jersey barriers to keep people out.

The state approved the barriers and decking removal but said no to the new bulkhead and regrading of dunes because there was no immediate threat of “loss of life or property” and because the new infrastructure could make erosion worse.

North Wildwood answered last week in writing, saying essentially: Tough, we’re doing it all anyway.

The town began regrading dunes last week in defiance of the order and has plans to start the bulkhead. The conflict brings to a head an issue with roots in Superstorm Sandy 10 years ago this week: How can North Wildwood protect beaches being battered storm after storm?

Mayor Patrick Rosenello said the tiff stems from long simmering frustrations between local and federal officials who promised after Sandy that a complex multi-town project would help fortify the hard-hit Shore community as part of a climate change resilience plan. North Wildwood has lost at least 1,000 feet of beach from storms and erosion since the project was announced. There is still no projected date to start work.

So Rosenello said municipal officials decided to act yet again on their own and try to address storm damage without permission from the state, which regulates the coast. North Wildwood has been trucking sand at its own expense each year from Wildwood to replenish its beaches, but it just gets washed away by storms.

“The DEP has been sitting on tens of millions of federal dollars for almost for almost a decade now,” Rosenello said. “They haven’t been able to get this project off the ground, and that has resulted in the city of North Wildwood spending over $20 million of our own money to protect the town. And all the DEP can do is look over our shoulder and send us notice of violations.”

The DEP did just that last week, issuing a violation Oct. 20 to North Wildwood for regrading the dunes, but without assessing a penalty as of yet. The state has authority to oversee the shoreline under the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA) and other regulations. The DEP denied an emergency request by North Wildwood, saying the municipality must obtain a fully approved CAFRA permit.

Rosenello said the municipality felt it had to act quickly because it believed someone would get hurt playing on the escarpments, calling it “without doubt a public safety hazard” because people continued to climb through the area even with the barriers.

City officials agree with the DEP that installing the bulkhead — a barrier designed to prevent erosion — could “exacerbate rather than alleviate” erosion over the long run, but they were still going through with it “in the absence of a meaningful beach replenishment program.” Officials said the bulkhead would eventually be buried whenever the promised beach project materializes.

North Wildwood is on a barrier island known as Five Mile Beach that contains the Wildwoods: North Wildwood, Wildwood, West Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach. All are separate municipalities; Diamond Beach is part of Lower Township.

The year after Sandy struck on Oct. 29, 2012, the state and U.S. Army Corps mapped out a complex plan to address erosion on the island from Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet. In language updated this year, the Army Corps notes that while North Wildwood was once the largest beach in the state, it has suffered “significant erosion of its berm and dune” and gets flooded repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest are seeing more sand washed onto their shorelines “causing extensive maintenance problems and health hazards with their stormwater management system.”

All that sand is clogging stormwater outfalls and creating pools of stagnant water that produce unhealthy beach conditions and foster flooding. During heavy rains, water becomes trapped in those mucky outfalls, trapping rainwater in pipes.

Normally, a beach replenishment, or “renourishment” as federal officials call it, would entail pumping sand from the ocean floor off North Wildwood directly onto its beach.

However, the Army Corps plan entails pumping 1.3 million cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor off Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Diamond Beach to create engineered dunes in those communities, as well as engineered dunes and a further protective berm in North Wildwood, solving two problems at once. In all, the Army Corps plans to create almost five miles of sloped protection from nor’easters and hurricanes.

North Wildwood would get the most protection: 16-foot-high by 25-foot-wide dunes fronted by 75-foot-wide berms.

The projected cost was $22 million for construction and $59 million for sand replenishment over 50 years. The federal government would pay 65% of the cost. The state would supply most of the rest with the communities kicking in the smallest amount.

But the plan also needs all municipalities, as well as some private property owners, to agree. The state has not been able to reach agreements with all involved, so work cannot begin.

In an email, Stephen Rochette, a spokesman for the Army Corps, deferred questions to the DEP, noting “the construction schedule is largely dependent on the state acquiring the necessary agreements with the municipalities and also the real estate easements.”

DEP spokeswoman Caryn Shinske, after forwarding the most recent letter from the DEP to North Wildwood, said the agency, “has no further comment.”

Meanwhile, Rosenello says he’s pressing on to keep beaches viable at North Wildwood’s expense. Earlier this year, the town spent $4 million to replenish its beaches in time for Memorial Day by trucking in millions of tons of sand from Wildwood. However, a storm Mother’s Day weekend ate away a third of that stockpile at a $1 million loss.

» READ MORE: Storm washed away one-third of the sand meant to replenish North Wildwood beaches

The route North Wildwood once used to move sand from Wildwood has eroded, Rosenello said. As a result, North Wildwood officials say they have no choice other than to build the 400-foot-long bulkhead in defiance of the state. The steel is expected to arrive in November.

“And this is where we find ourselves,” Rosenello said.