Beach Forum Touches Many Topics, Replenishment, Safety Discussed

CAPE MAY – A crowd of about a hundred filled seats at Convention Hall Aug. 25 while an unknown number watched the video stream of Cape May’s meeting on beach replenishment and beach safety.  
Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corps of Engineers, Stockton University, and the city’s engineering firm Hatch MacDonald assembled for a presentation on beach replenishment which the public tried hard to turn into a discussion of beach safety. 
N.J. DEP
The presentations began with DEP representative Chris Constantino discussing the state’s beach replenishment efforts which are supported by a $25 million-a-year fund provided from the proceeds of the Realty Transfer Tax.
Constantino’s message articulated the state’s focus on protection of life and property as well as the preservation of vital coastal reserves. What was immediately apparent was that the formal goals of the replenishment projects do not include the safety of the beach, recreational users.
As Cape May prepares for its next replenishment process, scheduled for this fall, Constantino emphasized the cost-sharing algorithms that govern the effort.
Since the project is a federally-supported one, part of a regular schedule that began in 1989, the vast majority of the costs are covered by federal monies.
According to Constantino, 90 percent of the funds for the project are federal with the state and the municipality sharing the other 10 percent under an arrangement where the state picks up 75 percent of that remaining 10 percent. In short, the cost to the municipality is minimal.
Constantino described this year’s project as one that encompasses what are usually two separate efforts running from the inlet and beaches adjacent to the Coast Guard base to Cape May Point. The expectation is that the project will move three-quarters of a million cubic yards of sand from offshore borrow areas.
The project is expected to begin in November and be complete by March 1, 2017.
Army Corps of Engineers
The next presentation was by the Army Corps representative Dwight Pakon. Pakon provided a historical perspective on the project which grew out of an effort in 1989-1991 when 1.4 million cubic yards of sand were used to engineer beaches where none existed.
Before and after photos showed the encroachment of the sea in pre-project days and the extreme vulnerability of the city to storms.
Pakon walked the audience through the history of replenishments and the proactive community dune program that have resulted in stable beaches and dunes that accomplish their goal of protecting people and property.
He estimated that over 4 million cubic yards of sand had been used in 10 cycles of replenishment since the initial beaches were constructed.
What was clear in the presentations to that point was that the state and federal officials consider the project to date a success given its goals of protection and preservation.
Slope, Safety
It was not until well into Pakon’s presentation that many in the audience heard the first comments about beach slope and safety, the issue that had drawn many to the event.
Pakon pointed to an experiment that the Army Corps incorporated into the 2011 beach replenishment. In one area of the beach, that year, extra sand was used to flatten the slope to a gentle 1V:25H, one foot vertical for every 25 feet horizontal.
The effort cost over $1 million and lasted only about a month before “Mother Nature” returned the slope to a much steeper 1V:12H, or one foot vertical for every 12 feet horizontal.
The issue of beach slope has been an ongoing concern in the city as beach safety advocates argue that the steep slope of Cape May’s beaches contribute to aggressive wave action and lead to unsafe conditions for beachgoers.
Chad DeSatnick, a survivor of a spinal cord injury 15 years ago, called Cape May’s beaches among the most dangerous on the East Coast.
In December Hatch MacDonald presented a study done by the company’s coastal engineers showing that the flatter the slope the more likely the wave action is to be gentler spilling waves that present fewer dangers to beach goers.
Unfortunately, the study also argued that mechanical efforts to alter the beach slope stood little chance of working since wave and wind actions readily return the beach slope to a much steeper level, a level that promotes more dangerous plunging waves.
Hatch MacDonald’s Thomas Thornton and Katie Walton presented a summary of the study. One finding of that study, Thornton said, was that it was “unlikely that the federal beach fill project resulted in steepening the beach slope.”
When anyone on the panel discussed the beach slope, the thrust of the comments was that it is a natural phenomenon caused by natural forces. Everyone agreed that the efforts to create a beach where one did not exist certainly provided the environment for Mother Nature to work on, but they otherwise did not see the link between replenishment and safety.
Stockton U.
Steve Farrell and Kimberly McKenna of Stockton University were the last of the formal presenters. Farrell has collected data on the coastal area surrounding Cape May since 1986.
Farrell presented a series of pictures and associated data to show the changing nature of the beaches and their altered characteristics following the impact of storms and other natural events.
Two winter storms, for instance, have created an environment at Cove Beach that Farrell calls “the most kid-friendly beach I’ve seen in a long time.” He quickly added that the change is temporary.  “Enjoy it while you can,” he said.
Taking a wide area, he termed “the swimming range,” Farrell pointed to March 2016 data showing a 10-to-1 steep slope from the berm crest to the high tide line. That is an area without water, and the slope is not a danger.
He moved to the mean high to the mean low tide zone where he found a 15-to-1 slope.  “This is the kind of slope that is borderline for producing plunging waves,” he said.
The next zone is from the mean low tide line to an area of about 4.5-foot depth where he said the slope is a gentle 23 to 1.
There was agreement that a steep slope, most conducive to producing more dangerous plunging wave action, does exist, probably naturally, on the city’s beaches.
It will be more or less pronounced based on the impact of recent storms that move sand in unpredictable ways. What there was no agreement on was does this make Cape May’s beaches uniquely dangerous?
DeSatnick, his father Dennis, and several others in the public pressed the officials on their intentions to make the beaches safer.
Their assertions about the unusually dangerous nature of Cape May’s beaches were challenged by the assembled engineers.  “We are not 100 percent clear that it is a problem specific to Cape May,” Constantino said.
Army Corps representatives said that they had not seen evidence of the safety issue. 
Each was addressing their mandate, all panel members said in varying ways.  That mandate is to protect and preserve coastal resources.
If the safety of recreational beach goers were to be added to that mandate, it would take legislative action and additional funding. Hard evidence would be needed to get both.
None of this was expressed in a confrontational way. Most of the public seemed pleased with the presentations and what many of them called “the education.”
Some remained concerned that there was not a greater focus on the safety issue in the presentations. The engineers did not minimize the safety concern, but they did not give it top billing.
New Initiative
Mayor Edward Mahaney announced a new initiative with Cape Regional Medical Center aimed at getting the kind of data-based analysis that would show if a link existed between beach replenishments and decreased safety.
Stockton’s Walton praised the city’s educational efforts. The municipality has redone its safety brochure and created videos on beach safety tips. She urged that education may be the best tool available for the present.
Jetties, Reefs
As the meeting went into its third hour, discussion continued on the nature and effects of jetties, the possible benefits of manufactured reefs, and the additional impact of wildlife conservation zones to name a few of the topics discussed. 
The city, which had billed the meeting as lasting two hours, let the questioning go on to get as much information to the public as possible.
The panel showed no signs of fatigue and members responded to every question or comment.
The result was a useful and informative session that largely left the safety issue where the city has been focused, on educational efforts aimed at better informing the beach goers about things they can do to be safe in the water.
Engineers’ response to the beach slope will presumably require a longer-term effort to convince legislators to add safety concerns to the mandates for replenishments, and that will require the kind of data the engineers on the panel say they have not yet seen.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.