NORTH WILDWOOD – Attorneys for the City of North Wildwood addressed a letter to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Sean LaTourette, Oct. 20, saying the city planned to take immediate action to alleviate a public emergency related to dune cliffs created by storm erosion.
Two days earlier, North Wildwood City Council voted unanimously to authorize up to $2 million for beach repair work that has not been approved by the DEP.
Heavy equipment was moving sand around on the beaches between 12th and 13th avenues Oct. 20. Workers were also placing sand in front of the North Wildwood Beach Patrol headquarters at 15th Avenue. A dune that had shown signs of cliffing had been reshaped to create a more gradual slope, as had a wider area between 12th and 13th avenues.
Mayor Patrick Rosenello spoke to the Herald Oct. 19 and said the city would “take whatever action is necessary” to protect property and lives in North Wildwood.
North Wildwood City Council passed a resolution Oct. 18, which declared an emergency situation on all North Wildwood beaches, from 2nd to 26th avenues. According to the resolution, the city’s engineer and the Public Works superintendent advised the governing body that beach erosion related to the effects of Hurricane Ian has created an emergency.
Language in the resolution says the storm-related erosion destroyed the beach-top berm, caused severe damage to the dune system, and created unsafe cliff conditions. Prior to starting work on the beaches, Rosenello described 14 and 15-foot cliffs on the ocean side of dunes.
The Oct. 20 letter from Neil Yoskin, an attorney with the city’s firm Cullen and Dykman LLP addressed to LaTourette, said the area between 13th and 16th avenues was of particular concern regarding public safety and noted that members of the public had been seen attempting to scale the dune cliffs. Yoskin said that illustrates the danger to the public that concerns city officials.
Yoskin referred to a letter from the DEP emailed Oct. 7, in which the agency denied the city’s request to reshape the dune, saying, “it has not been demonstrated that there is an imminent threat to the loss of life or property based on the existing condition.”
Yoskin replied saying, “The city, needless to say, disagrees with this determination and what appears to be the department’s indifference to the reasonable requirements of protecting public safety, property and infrastructure.”
Yoskin said the DEP’s definition of “imminent threat” seemed to suggest that a catastrophe must be ready to occur, adding no one can predict such a thing.
“It is impossible…to predict the precise moment at which a threat ceases being imminent and becomes something more dire,” he wrote.
The city filed a request for Emergency Authorization with the DEP Oct. 5, citing various concerns, including the need to protect the lifeguard headquarters at 15th Avenue.
The DEP’s Oct. 7 letter to the city said North Wildwood had never obtained permission to build lifeguard headquarters, per a Notice of Violation from the DEP, dated June 6, 2020. The 10-page notice outlines 18 specific CAFRA violations including the installation of steel bulkheads, removal of vegetation, filling and grading dune areas, creating paths through the dunes using crushed shells, gravel or concrete, installing concrete or composite walkways, installing a shed, platform, gazebo or other structures, including beach shower platforms.
The DEP did grant Emergency Authorization to place Jersey barriers – concrete barriers often used during highway reconstruction projects – in front of the headquarters, where there was significant dune loss from Hurricane Ian. The barriers were present on the morning of Oct. 20 when other work was being performed.
At the same time, the DEP denied the request to reshape the dune – work which Yoskin told the DEP would begin Oct. 20 – and to reconstruct the vehicle access at 25th Avenue. The DEP’s Oct. 7 letter also referred to the authorization given to the city to truck sand from Wildwood and place it on North Wildwood beaches. The process is called back-passing, and Rosenello said it is both expensive, and a short-term solution. He said the city has invested about $20 million to truck dry sand to North Wildwood beaches, which he said erodes quicker than wet sand hydraulicly pumped onto the beaches.
City Administrator Nicholas Long said the city started back-passing after Winter Storm Jonas in 2016, which caused more flooding on 5 Mile Island than Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Long said there was federal money from Sandy that was used for beach replenishment. The first year of back-passing sand cost the city about $500,000.
“Every year it has gotten significantly worse,” Long said.
The city has spent about $3.8 million in 2022 alone to replace about 350,000 cubic yards of sand on eroded beaches.
The DEP also denied Emergency Authorization to install a steel bulkhead on the landward side of the dune in front of the lifeguard headquarters, saying a steel bulkhead would promote erosion along the northern and southern ends of the bulkhead.
Yoskin argued that while that might be true, if the state and federal governments followed through with a 2013 plan to construct a dune and beach berm from Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet, the bulkhead would be buried. Rosenello said the state needs to step up and complete the dune project or come up with a “Plan B.”
For now, North Wildwood is waiting for the bulkhead materials to be delivered. Rosenello said it would take about a month before the materials arrive, and he only hopes there is no large coastal storm before then.
Rosenello was not concerned about the DEP’s response to the work the city was doing. He said Yoskin is the preeminent environmental lawyer in New Jersey, and along with the city solicitor, the city’s environmental consultant and engineering firm, he feels the city has a good grasp of the law and North Wildwood’s position in the matter.
“By state law, there is a process. An agency like the DEP can say we think you should do this, and the municipality can disagree,” he said.
Rosenello said the state can file an action and the cases could ultimately end up before a panel of appellate judges, who would review all the relevant facts and make a ruling.
“In the meantime, there is no chance we are going to sit by and watch the city be destroyed or lives be put at risk because a bureaucrat in Trenton is reading out of code book and saying, ‘Oh no, you can’t do that’,” he said.
Thoughts? Email csouth@cmcherald.com.
