Stone Harbor Declares DEP ‘Hopelessly Incompetent’

STONE HARBOR – Just a week after North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello called the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) “a failed government agency,” Stone Harbor Administrator Robert Smith told the borough council Oct. 18 that the agency is “hopelessly incompetent.” The aftermath of the October nor’easter spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Ian has not been the DEP’s shining hour in the eyes of a number of local officials in Cape May County.
Damage from the storm had forced Stone Harbor to close its beach access paths for vehicles and pedestrians. The borough anxiously awaited approval of its request for an emergency permit so it could at least restore emergency access to the beaches. DEP denied the permit Oct. 14. According to the discussion before borough council, DEP even expressed the opinion that the borough’s safety concerns were overblown. 
Then came the rescue.
At 10:32 a.m. Oct. 15, borough emergency personnel responded to a report of someone in distress in the water. The damaged access routes complicated that response. Luckily all went well and there was no tragic loss of life. The rescue did have an impact on the DEP. Seeing a potential tragedy that could have been laid at its doorstep, the agency reversed its Oct. 14 position and issued the emergency permit Oct. 17. The fallacy that the safety concerns had been exaggerated was shredded by the rescue. 
“They sit in Trenton in their cubicles making bad decisions,” Smith said, “They needed to have boots on the ground,” he added.
One problem the borough has had with the DEP revolves around Stone Harbor’s lack of a state-approved Municipal Public Access Plan (MPAP). The borough’s general permit for beach maintenance expired in September and cannot be renewed until the DEP approves the MPAP. The borough’s coastal engineer, Douglas Gaffney of Mott MacDonald, reported to the council that a revised MPAP has been sent to DEP and the borough is waiting for a response before filing its application for renewal of its general permit.
Again, pent-up frustration with the DEP spilled out into the council meeting. Smith said he had thoroughly researched the background of the borough’s efforts regarding the required MPAP. He said the borough developed the plan in 2016 and sent it to the state. The requested changes to the plan were made in 2019. Yet the DEP never formally took action on the plan. Smith referenced an email in which the agency said it was undergoing some changes in staffing and rules. The email from the state promised to “get back” to the borough after the staff changes settled down. Nothing ever happened.
“We did everything we were supposed to do,” Smith said several times. “The DEP dropped the ball,” while they went through their staff changes in Trenton. Smith was not yet the borough administrator at the time, but he said he had all the paperwork that showed the DEP failed to respond to the borough’s MPAP. 
The DEP is “at fault” for the lack of an MPAP, Smith asserted, “and they are, insanely, holding it against us.” Smith was alluding to the refusal of the DEP to renew the borough’s general permit until there is an approved MPAP. 
This dispute comes as the DEP’s own damage report on the nor’easter showed Stone Harbor with significant erosion impacting its beaches and protective dunes. The lingering storm which hovered over the area from Sept. 28 to Oct. 5 produced major erosion and scarping. The DEP report characterized the damage as major.
Much as North Wildwood has decided to move on repairs to its shoreline protections even before approval of such work by the DEP, Stone Harbor’s Public Works Department initiated the work necessary to reopen its emergency access to the beaches following the Oct. 14 denial of the emergency permit by the DEP and before the agency reversed its decision Oct. 17. 
Public Works Director Manny Parada said his crews had opened 5 access points to the beaches on the morning following the rescue. They also moved sand to cover exposed pilings that would otherwise have impeded the movement of emergency vehicles. 
This was followed by work to reopen pedestrian beach access points. By the time of the Oct. 18 council meeting, access to the beaches had been restored from 81st to 104th streets. Parada said the crews would then skip past the area of the worst damage from 106th to 111th streets, restore the access points south of 111th street, and then return for the more involved work necessary to deal with the area of greatest damage. 
Parada cautioned against high expectations. 
“We cannot restore it back to what it was without a replenishment,” he said. Thankfully, a federal replenishment is scheduled for early 2023. Until that replenishment, the Public Works crews can make access to the beaches safe again, but nothing will restore the storm protection of the beaches and dunes that were eroded. The borough will be more vulnerable to a major storm. 
Mother nature may play a role in the restoration of the beaches. Much of the lost sand is sitting in newly formed sand bars off the shoreline. Parada said that sand was too far out for Public Works to be able to retrieve it, but normal wind and wave action will begin restoring some of that sand to the beaches if the area’s seas remain calm and unimpacted by any new storms. 
At the same council meeting, Gaffney reported on progress in the development of a feasibility study that will explore the borough’s options for beach alterations that might help the shoreline retain its sand for longer periods. Ultimately, periodic replenishments will remain a necessity on what are engineered beaches. 
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