Workers remove sand from Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright shortly after superstorm Sandy. Federal money being allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers out of the Congressional Sandy aid bill could fund one of the largest beach replenishment projects in the world, covering 21 miles from Sea Bright to the Barnegat Inlet. ERIC SUCAR staff Bureaucracy and a lack of funding created multi-year delays for Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) projects originally designed to protect Bayshore towns from flooding, according to some federal officials.
Two projects proposed prior to 2000, for example, called for levees, floodwalls and other mitigation infrastructure in Union Beach and the Port Monmouth section of Middletown. Neither of those projects had reached the point of construction last year when superstorm Sandy rocked both towns with substantial flooding.
Nearly a month after the Jan. 28 passage of the $50.5 billion Congressional Sandy aid bill, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th District) said he expects a substantial amount of federal funds to be pumped into pending ACE projects throughout the area.
“The Shore sustained such severe damage from Sandy, which if unaddressed would continue to wash away our beaches and make much of the region uninhabitable,” he said in a Feb. 26 statement. “That’s why I have been insistent that restoring our coast, beaches and waterways must be a top priority for the funding from the Sandy relief package.”
According to legislation passed concurrently with the aid bill, the ACE was required to perform a “comprehensive study” of its pending projects and submit two reports to Congress, said agency spokesman Justin Ward. The first of those reports, detailing projects that would qualify for federal funding and their projected costs, was submitted to the legislative body on March 1, he said. The second report is due May 1.
Chris Gardner, public affairs officer for the ACE, said the agency is reviewing the aid bill itself and developing “implementation guidance” to ensure that its contract specialists, project managers and other employees are following the “letter of the law.”
“The bill can be interpreted in various ways,” he said. “The ACE headquarters and the lawyers have to look at it to determine what can actually be done.
“You have to be extremely careful and extremely cautious when you are talking about large amounts of federal money,” he added. “You have to make sure you are following the intent of the law and the intent of Congress.”
Once the implementation guidance has been finalized, Gardner said the ACE would have a better idea of the amount of money to be allocated toward each pending project. With no estimated timeframe for that to happen, however, it’s difficult to speculate what areas will be addressed first, he said.
“We obviously want to get out and start doing this work to help these communities as quickly as possible,” he said. “So we’re hoping for sooner rather than later.”
Pallone said he expects the ACE to allocate hundreds of millions to beach replenishment and flood mitigation projects throughout the Jersey Shore.
Three projects in particular, which he said in a March 1 interview stand a better chance of being initiated and completed in a relatively short period of time, involve Keansburg, Port Monmouth and a $100 million beach-replenishment effort for 21 miles of coastline between Sea Bright and Manasquan. That project, which would be the largest beach nourishment project ever undertaken by the ACE and the biggest beachfill project in terms of sand volume in the world, was initiated by the ACE prior to Sandy.
In Keansburg, Pallone expects the borough’s severely damaged levees, closure gates, pump station and floodwall to be fixed. Repairs to the 40-year-old infrastructure could cost more than $50 million, he said.
In Port Monmouth, however, where Pallone expects Sandy aid to fund 7,070 feet of levees and 3,585 feet of floodwalls, no flood control devices currently exist. The stalled ACE project that originally called for that work was authorized for construction in 2000 and entered the preconstruction, engineering and design (PED) phase in May 2002.
Due to funding limitations, however, the scope of the project was reduced to include only sand replenishment and dune creation. In recent years, Pallone and others have pushed for federal funds for the Port Monmouth projects, accumulating $6.4 million by 2012. As of last month, no work had begun in Port Monmouth, however, because the appropriated federal funds for the project were “insufficient for construction,” according to ACE records.
In nearby Union Beach, ACE flood mitigation plans were in the works as far back as the mid-1990s. According to agency records, a cost-sharing agreement for a comprehensive study of the borough was approved in 1997. In 2004 the ACE released a feasibility report and an environmental impact statement for the project, which called for “a combination of levees and floodwalls, tide gates, pump stations and a dune and beach berm with terminal groins.” The work was also slated to protect sensitive wetlands.
The report and impact statement were approved by ACE headquarters in 2006, and a design agreement was reached in 2008. According to the ACE, the project is currently moving toward the PED phase. In 2012, Gardner said, the Union Beach project received zero funding.
When asked how a project could still be so far from construction after 15 years, Gardner said the ACE is bound by law to conduct a wide array of exhaustive studies and analyses to ensure the work complies with federal and state guidelines and is the most cost-effective solution to a substantiated flood risk.
One of the most pressing challenges, he said, is procuring enough funds from the federal government and state or local partners to fund the studies as well as the multi-million dollar projects.
“A lot of times what happens is you get incremental funding,” he said. “So if, for example, you need $3 million for a multi-year project, the first year you might get $1 million, the second year you’ll get $200,000, the third year you’ll get $100,000, and the fourth year you will get zero. It’s completely unpredictable. Unfortunately, a lot of times that funding does not come through.”
In a funding process that has traditionally required a state or local agency to fund up to 35 percent of an ACE flood mitigation project, Gardner said shortfalls on either side could cause lengthy delays.
Pallone said the ACE also has to weigh a substantial amount of proposed projects on a cost-benefit basis, meaning it has to prove they will save the government more money than they cost in the long run. Those that fall below certain ratios, he said, are dropped.
“The towns and I can make the case, but they make the decision,” he said. “How they determine that number is up to them.”
Since Congress placed a ban on earmarks two years ago, Pallone said it has been more difficult to appropriate funds for specific projects. Instead, he has to actively push for areas in aid, something he has been doing for years.
“It’s been difficult. In the past, we were talking maybe $10 or $15 million a year for all of Monmouth County. Many times we had to go out and recruit money because there was simply no money in the budget,” he said.
“Now we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars … These Army Corps projects are needed, and I’m happy to see that they are coming to fruition.”
Pallone said the Sandy aid funding could enable the Port Monmouth work to begin within the year, while other projects still in the design phase — including those in Union Beach and Keyport — can now be expedited.
Gardner declined to speculate on when final decisions on ACE projects might be made.
“For now we are awaiting guidance,” he said.