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The state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) sent a letter to the City of North Wildwood denying an emergency request to build a beachfront bulkhead, the city announced on Thursday, Feb. 1. The proposal called for a 752-foot-long steel bulkhead from the middle of 12th and 13th avenues to 15th Avenue.
The proposed bulkhead would be 12 feet tall and capped with boardwalk-style decking.
"The absence of effective shore protection is expected to cause erosion to accelerate, placing city infrastructure at significant risk," city officials said in a statement. "Therefore, the city reaffirmed the need for emergency shore protection via installation of a bulkhead. The NJDEP ultimately disagreed."
North Wildwood made the emergency authorization request after coastal storms caused significant beach erosion on Tuesday, Jan. 9, and Saturday, Jan. 13. The city said the beach berm and dunes were damaged, leaving several blocks of the oceanfront vulnerable.
Peter Lomax from the Lomax Consulting Group submitted the request on the city's behalf on Friday, Jan. 19. Lomax said that tides breached dunes between 13th and 14th avenues, causing damage to vegetation.
According to the NJDEP, North Wildwood argued that high tides or storm surges could push sand into the sewer, damaging the city's storm drainage system.
"The majority of the former dune is now gone and any storm surge or lunar tide with moderate to strong wave action continues to erode into and through the dune, unimpeded by a beach berm or any other protective measures," the city's submission to the NJDEP said.
"As erosion continues, these overwash conditions are likely to be exacerbated and deposit sand into the bike path and JFK Boulevard, exposing the storm drainage system to sediment inundation, which risks failure."
The NJDEP's division of land resource protection (DLRP) said the natural dunes are functioning and there's "no threat to life, severe loss of property, or environmental degradation."
"To be clear, DLRP does not disagree that there is erosion that must be addressed in [North Wildwood]," DLRP assistant director Colleen Keller wrote in a letter to the city. "It disagrees that this erosion represents the imminent threat required for DLRP to issue an [emergency authorization]."
The DLRP told the city to create a proposal that follows state rules for managing coastal zones. Those regulations require shore protection measures that reduce the impact on beaches and dunes.
Keller said hard structures like a bulkhead can disrupt how sand naturally flows and natural solutions are better at preventing erosion.
"For example, the unauthorized removal of dunes/manipulation of the beach berm and installation of bulkhead from 7th Avenue to 12.5th Avenue impacted and eliminated sand reserves from the beach in that area, such that when erosion occurred at 15th Avenue, there was less sand available to feed the beach/dune and replace the eroded sand," Keller wrote.
"The unauthorized manipulation of the beach and dune system, and installation of exposed bulkhead to the north has exacerbated erosion to the south."
The NJDEP recommended that North Wildwood consider alternative shore protection measures like placing rocks at key areas to absorb wave energy. It also suggested "backpassing," which is a process of moving sand from one part of the shore to another.
The city said it will appeal the NJDEP's decision.
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