Hereford Inlet sand can again be used for beach replenishment on Seven Mile Island.
The long struggle over use of the inlet sand for beach replenishment projects outside the Coastal Barrier Resources System boundaries may finally be over with passage of congressional legislation termed the Bolstering Ecosystems Against Coastal Harm Act, also known as the BEACH Act.
That legislation includes a provision to permit the “use of sand source within a system unit by federal coastal storm risk management projects or their predecessor projects” to nourish “adjacent beaches outside the system.” In other words: The Hereford Inlet sand is available.
The legislation passed both houses of Congress on a bipartisan basis. President Biden signed it on Monday, Nov. 25.
The signing of the bill, H.R. 5490, will lower costs for federal hydraulic beach replenishment projects on Seven Mile Island by providing both Avalon and Stone Harbor with dedicated sand borrow areas.
The Army Corps of Engineers will be able to mine Hereford Inlet sand for federally authorized beach replenishments in Stone Harbor. It means the end of long and expensive pipes and pumps to move sand from Townsend Inlet to Stone Harbor beaches; it means less costly replenishment projects for the borough.
It also means more sand will be available from the Townsends Inlet borrow area for beaches to the north like Avalon’s, which have less sand than they would otherwise have if it did not have to be shared with Stone Harbor.
Avalon’s business administrator, Scott Wahl, called the bill one in which “everyone wins.”
The language providing for the borrowing of sand for replenishment of adjacent beaches came directly from an earlier House bill that had not come up for a vote but that had been co-sponsored by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2). It is that language that should significantly ease the burden of beach replenishment on Seven Mile Island.
Dan Ginolfi, senior vice president at Warwick Group Consultants, which worked with the towns on the issue, said the act has clear applicability to Stone Harbor and Avalon, but more clarity is needed to determine the extent of its applicability to North Wildwood.
How the legislation would affect the Five Mile Island project to build a 16-foot dune and 75-foot berm along the islands coast also is yet to be specified.
This issue of sand from Hereford Inlet has been a controversial one that has had impact on the last three federally sponsored beach replenishments on Seven Mile Island. In two of those expensive efforts to pump sand the length of the island, the cost for local taxpayers increased, and in the other Stone Harbor was skipped entirely, receiving no replenishment.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
