Jefferson Van Drew

HOLGATE — In the wake of a September nor'easter that robbed New Jersey beaches of several feet of sand and dunes, a southern New Jersey congressman wants a new source of federal funding to rebuild eroding coastal areas and protect them from future storms.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew said the Jersey Shore needs more sea walls, jetties, beach groins and other permanent structures to help hold sand and dunes in place during powerful hurricanes and nor'easters. The most recent storm caused massive erosion, causing New Jersey beaches to lose millions of tons of sand over a few days of flooding and battering waves.

These beaches not only provide important tourism destinations for people across the eastern U.S., they protect nearby homes and businesses from flooding and powerful wave damage.

"The long-term answer is not just dumping the sand" on the beach, the congressman said on a pier overlooking Atlantic City's eroded beaches. "You're always gonna have to do that. It's not gonna go away. But also part of it (coastal protection) is having systems in place that prevent this (erosion) from happening."

Van Drew stood just feet away from a towering sand cliff carved into the city's beach. The base of a nearby beach access ramp had washed away, leaving a cliff roughly 10 to 12 feet down to the sand below.

Van Drew also stopped at Jersey Shore points between the Holgate section of Long Beach Township and North Wildwood. During his stop in Atlantic City, he said the nation needs the Coastal Trust Fund Act, a piece of legislation he introduced in Congress in February that would set aside $1 billion each year for coastal protection projects.

"People ask, where does the money come from?" Van Drew said. "It's there on… the oil and gas leases in the gulf."

The oil and gas industry is not opposed to the measure, the congressman said, because they also want to protect their infrastructure in the gulf.

"Those oil and gas leases bring in money, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, and we want to get a piece of that to come into our regions as well," he said.

In recent years, the consistency of federal funding for coastal protection has been "half-assed" and committed through various appropriations, supplemental funding and earmarks, he said.

"That's no way to run an operation," Van Drew said.

Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini said the nor'easter's erosion in Holgate left 16-foot to 20-foot-high cliffs between the tops of the dunes and beaches below. Long Beach Township employees are putting the sand back toward the dunes as it washes back onshore, he said.

Mancini said people are trying to walk down on the beach and are unable to get back up the sand cliffs. A few people have needed help getting off the beach at high tide, he said.

Yet despite the losses, the beach and dunes did their job during the storm, the mayor said.

"The engineered dunes worked as advertised," he said. "Long Beach Township has 12 miles of beach. We didn't have any oceanfront damage, property wise.

"If you spend $100 million in rebuilding the dunes, you're going to save a billion in damages," he said.

While the dunes and replenished beaches helped to protect homes and businesses, Van Drew said permanent structures like sea walls should be part of the rebuilding plans of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers .... That is because more storms are coming, he said.

"The history of the Jersey Shore is the history of nor'easters," Van Drew said.

Amanda Oglesby covers education and the environment. Reach her at [email protected] or 732-557-5701.