Avalon Back Passing Plan: Problem or Solution?

AVALON – Four nor’easters in March seriously impacted the north end beaches in Avalon. With the summer season just weeks away and no federal beach replenishment project in the works, the borough turned once again to the alternative strategy of back passing, taking sand from areas of the borough where it naturally accrues and trucking it back to the north end. 
The task is nowhere near as simple as it seems and it has not been greeted without controversy by those whose property borders the beach areas from which sand will be borrowed.
In order to remove sand from one area of the borough’s beaches and transport it to another, the municipality must clear a number of regulatory hurdles at both state and federal levels. Significant federal investments in beach replenishment up and down the Jersey shoreline are tied to certain levels of federal control over the beach profiles and maintenance. State environmental rules also play their part. 
The result is a complex and lengthy permit process involving the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection. According to Borough Engineer Thomas Thornton, at a recent borough council meeting, the permit process can take months. This applies to new permits or even to significant changes to existing permits.
The need for immediate action, with summer quickly approaching, led the borough to fall back on an existing permit as the basis for sand relocation.
The 2016 Experience
Avalon has used back passing once before in 2016, when it took sand from the beaches bordering streets in the mid-30’s and trucked it to the sand-depleted north end.
State and federal rules designate two “borrow areas” in the borough, areas from which sand can be borrowed within strict regulatory limits. The borrowing of sand implies the temporary nature of the process since natural wave actions will begin returning the sand to the borrow areas within the same season in which it is borrowed.
One such area, known as the “north borrow area,” stretches from 40th Street to 32nd Street. It was this area that was used as a source of sand for the borough’s first back passing operation.
In 2016, the back passing project caused the creation of a gully that some residents say remained all through the summer season, severely handicapping the use of the beaches near their homes.
A number of property owners brought their complaints to borough council urging caution should future events again require the back passing process. These residents wanted the borough to understand that borrowing sand to relieve the difficulties in one area of the community came at a cost of a lost summer season on beaches from which the sand was borrowed.
Borough Response In 2018
Confronted with storm damage to the north end and little time in which to recover, the borough has returned to the same north borrow area again in 2018.
Council President John McCorristin was clear on the reasons. He pointed out that the timing did not allow the borough to seek changes to existing permits and that the potential borrow areas south of 32nd Street are not practical options after March 15, a date when trucks are not allowed to drive north along the beach due to potential damage to a nesting area for piping plover.
McCorristin also noted that moving the trucks to the borough streets was equally impractical. “These trucks are massive,” he said. “They actually cause houses along the route to shake on their foundations.” 
Thornton said that taking sand from the southern beaches and stockpiling it north of the nesting area was considered, but the concept came with its own problems. “What do you do with the sand if it is not needed?” he asked. Thornton also said that it was not clear that stockpiled sand could be used if needed without a permit.
To meet the challenge presented by the 2018 storms and minimize any negative impact on homeowners in the borrow area, the borough has moved the scraping of sand east of the dry beach. By moving “waterward,” the project is taking advantage of a sandbar naturally created with north end sand from last year’s beach replenishment that had naturally been carried south.
“We think we may be able to get the sand we need staying east of the dry sand beach. We hope to not touch it at all,” Thornton said.
By keeping the scraping east of the dry beach line, limiting the sand necessary to around 25,000 cubic yards, and taking advantage of the sandbar already in existence, the borough hopes to see very little impact on the beach experience of residents in the borrow area.
The project will actually remove a gully that would otherwise exist for natural reasons, Thornton pointed out.
Calls for sharing the burden of sand back passing with borrow areas to the south of 32nd Street continue, but environmental regulations regarding bird nesting areas make it unlikely that southern borrow areas can play much of a role in storm recovery, unless the storms occur in early fall.
More likely is an effort by the borough to use the experience it is gaining with back passing to refine its use in ways that limit negative impacts on borrow area beaches.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.