By Donald Wittkowski
Jagged mini-cliffs carved out of some of Sea Isle City’s dunes by a string of nasty coastal storms will soon be getting a patch job.
Although Mother Nature was responsible for eroding the beaches in the first place, the city will also depend on Mother Nature to provide the extra sand to help restore the depleted dunes.
Repair work on the dunes may begin before the weekend, as soon as the rough ocean waters churned up by the latest storm calm down, Sea Isle Business Administrator George Savastano said.
“Hopefully, before the weekend we can put sand up there and take away the cliffs,” he said.
Savastano explained that the city plans to “harvest” sand near the water’s edge during low tide and use it to patch the dunes.
In turn, sand taken from the water’s edge will be restored by the tides and the natural buildup of sandbars along the shoreline that occurs during the spring, Savastano noted.
In other words, what Mother Nature took away during the winter, she’ll be helping to replace in the spring.
“The tide replaces what you take,” Savastano said.
Sea Isle also has the option of trucking in beach sand, but currently that is not being considered, Savastano pointed out.
Three nor’easters in recent weeks – especially the coastal storm on March 8 – chipped away at the beaches, said Mike Jargowsky, the deputy coordinator of Sea Isle’s Office of Emergency Management.
Beaches between 85th and 89th streets in the Townsends Inlet section were particularly hard hit, including some parts of the dunes that were sheared away, creating what Jargowsky described as “jagged cliffs.”
“There is generally a slope to the beaches and, ideally, that is the profile you want to keep. But when you see the jagged, cliff-like beach, you have lost a lot of sand,” Jargowsky said.
Some of the downtown beaches between 30th and 39th streets also suffered erosion, Savastano said.
As a safety measure, the city will continue to block off the beaches where the dunes were sliced away. Last weekend, red and yellow caution tape warned people not to step onto the beaches at 87th Street and 89th Street.
Overall, Sea Isle’s beaches remain in good shape, Savastano emphasized. The city continues to benefit from a $40 million beach replenishment project, funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that added nearly 3 million cubic yards of new sand in 2015 and 2016.
Despite the latest bout of beach erosion, Savastano believes it is “highly unlikely” the Army Corps of Engineers will be back anytime soon to add more sand in the aftermath of the stormy weather. He said Sea Isle’s next beach replenishment project is scheduled for the fall of 2019.
Savastano is keenly aware of the importance of beach replenishment projects because he formerly served as an engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. He oversaw major beach restoration projects in Cape May and Ocean City in the early 1990s.
Sea Isle, like other seashore towns, is used to coastal storms and beach erosion occurring over the winter. However, the outbreak of three nor’easters in the last three weeks has tested everyone’s patience.
“This is a winter that doesn’t want to go away,” Savastano said.
