By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
In what seems like a high-stakes game of tug-of-war with Mother Nature, Sea Isle City is using earthmovers to replace huge amounts of sand that powerful storms have washed away over the fall and winter.
Beach erosion had become so severe in some spots at the southern tip of the island that at least one oceanfront home seemed perilously close to where the edge of the damaged dunes had become steep mini-cliffs.
But now, the city’s Public Works crews are taking beach sand from the edge of the water during low tide and using it to fortify the dunes. The sand scraped away near the ocean is then naturally replenished by the waves during the incoming tides, so nothing is really lost.
“Fortunately, we have members of Public Works who are skilled and experienced with beach management. Basically, they work with nature as best as they can,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said.
The process, known as “sand harvesting,” essentially serves as a way to patch up eroded dunes that had been sheared away by the stormy ocean. In particular, the dunes between 88th and 92nd streets in Townsends Inlet in the south end of town had mini-cliffs towering about 10 to 20 feet high.
New sand taken from the water’s edge and pushed up against the dunes by earthmovers has covered up the cliffs, almost like an avalanche of snow in the mountains.
“They’re trying to stabilize the dunes,” Custer explained in an interview Thursday.
In one dramatic case, an oceanfront house at the end of 90th Street appeared to be only 15 feet or so from where the dunes had been sliced away by the waves. The single-family home is up for sale, with a list price of $4.5 million.
However, the addition of new sand this week by the Public Works crews has created a significantly wider dune line in front of the home on 90th Street as well as other neighboring oceanfront houses.
Sand harvesting is a short-term way to restore the depleted dunes. Sea Isle is waiting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin a full-scale beach replenishment project this year to restore a much-larger stretch of the eroded shoreline.
Sea Isle is part of an estimated $30 million beach replenishment project that also includes Strathmere and the southern part of Ocean City. The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that will oversee the project, is expected to award the contract in June, with work likely getting underway by late summer.
In the summer of 2020, Sea Isle’s beaches were widened and replenished with more than 750,000 cubic yards of new sand between 28th and 52nd streets and from 74th to 93rd streets in Townsends Inlet.
Storms in late 2022 and the beginning of 2023 continue to erode the protective barrier of dunes as well as the powdery top layer of sand that gives the beaches their attractive appearance.
George Savastano, the city business administrator, said Sea Isle wants the Army Corps to restore the beaches in the downtown area between 29th and 50th streets and in the south end of the island from generally 75th Street or 80th Street to 94th Street near the Townsends Inlet Bridge.
Surveys are already being done of the eroded shoreline to determine how much new sand will be needed and which beaches will be replenished. Savastano said that the survey results can be adjusted later on if new storms cause even more erosion to the beaches.
In an interview last week, Savastano said the city was reluctant to begin sand harvesting operations in the middle of winter. The likelihood of more winter storms would mean the sand could be swept away shortly after it is placed on the dunes, he pointed out.
At the same time, Savastano stressed that the city was keeping an eye on the erosion and would be ready to repair the damaged dunes in the vicinity of 90th Street and other hard-hit areas if needed before the spring.
Meanwhile, the city has erected barriers to prevent people from walking on some of the beach pathways in Townsends Inlet and getting too close to the dune drop-offs.
Sea Isle’s beaches and dunes in the downtown area on both sides of John F. Kennedy Boulevard have also suffered storm damage.
Using a front-end loader, Public Works crews were leveling out the pathways over the dunes to the beaches at 38th Street and 39th Street on Thursday afternoon. New sand was also being added to a section of the dunes in the same area.
Custer said the work being done on the beach paths and dunes at 38th and 39th streets did not involve sand harvesting. Instead, it was part of the regular beach maintenance program that is done by the Public Works Department over the winter.
“They’re moving around sand and making the dune paths more accessible,” Custer said. “Even in winter, people enjoy Sea Isle City’s beaches, so we want to keep them as accessible as possible.”
Mayor Leonard Desiderio pledged in a statement in January that the Public Works Department “will do everything possible to ensure all beaches are in the best shape possible for the coming season.”
“We’ve been through this before, and I have full confidence that our beaches will be ready as always come Memorial Day weekend,” Desiderio said in the statement.
Custer sounded a similar theme on Thursday.
“We’re looking forward to a very successful summer on the beach in Sea Isle City in 2023,” she said.
