Posted on November 29, 2018
Early allocation differs from practices of previous years, when federal money was slow to be released. Sand replenishment to start in May.
The sand is on its way. Guaranteed.
The federal government has already allocated $1.5 million for sand replenishment at Presque Isle State Park in 2019.
The allocation, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on Tuesday, represents a break from federal funding practices of previous years, when the park did not learn until spring or summer that the $1.5 million in federal funds was secured for that year.
The waiting had caused the Army Corps to undertake sand replenishment well into the swimming season, which starts on Memorial Day weekend. In 2017 and 2018, work on the erosion-control project did not start until August.
“Having it early like this really benefits Presque Isle,” Andrew Kornacki, a spokesman for the Buffalo District of the Army Corps, said on Tuesday.
He said the corps still must hire contractors for the work and until then will not know where the sand will come from. In the past, crews dredged sand from the bottom of Lake Erie or got the sand from a quarry.
The work will start in mid-May, said Mike Asquith, the sand replenishment project manager with the Buffalo District of the Army Corps.
He said he will contact the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources about getting $1.5 million in state funding for the replenishment project. The state has routinely provided $1.5 million in previous years and is expected to do so in 2019. The state allocation would bring total government funding of the project to $3 million.
Asquith witnessed the need for the sand on Nov. 14, when he participated in the annual fall beach walk to examine erosion at Presque Isle State Park. A month of storms had accelerated the loss of sand on the park’s seven miles of beaches.
“You certainly have a need there already,” Asquith said on Tuesday.
Presque Isle Park Operations Manager Matt Greene, who also participated in the beach walk, was not immediately available for comment.
Greene said after the walk that the park has $500,000 left over from sand replenishment for 2018, and that the park would use that money for replenishment in 2019 due to the extent of the erosion, particularly at Beaches 5, 6, 8 and 9 and at the Mill Road beaches. Greene said Lake Erie’s high water level — about 3 feet above the mean on Nov. 14 — allows waves to reach the beaches’ dunes much easier, which increases erosion.
An earlier budget
The Buffalo District of the Army Corps on Tuesday announced that the $1.5 million for sand replenishment is included in a $42 million allocation that it received to complete projects included in its 2019 Work Plan. The $42 million is in addition to $55 million the Buffalo District received in the federal budget for the fiscal year 2019, which starts Oct. 1.
The total fiscal 2019 allocation for the Army Corps is $7 billion, included in the omnibus spending bill that President Donald Trump signed on Sept. 21. Asquith said the earlier approval of the federal budget likely helped the early allocation of money for sand replenishment.
In 2018, Trump signed the omnibus spending bill in March 2018, well after the start of the fiscal year and after the government continued to operate through passage of temporary budget resolutions.
This year, the corps on Nov. 21 submitted to Congress its 2019 Work Plan. It details projects nationwide, such as the sand replenishment at Presque Isle, that the corps determined deserved funding from the overall $7 billion allocation.
Dredging plan
Also on Tuesday, the Buffalo District of the Army Corps announced that it will receive $299,000 in 2019 to undertake a management plan concerning material dredged from Erie’s harbor. The $299,000 also includes funding for environmental studies and monitoring of dredged material.
The corps now deposits material dredged from Erie’s harbor in the open waters of Lake Erie, several miles from Presque Isle Bay, said Asquith, who is also the project manager for the dredging plan. He said the plan will help determine whether the corps should change how it disposes of the dredged materials.
The corps last conducted a management plan for dredged material from Erie’s harbor in 1996, Asquith said. He said the corps has no plans to dredge the harbor in 2019. Dredging occurred in 2016 and in 2015 and 2011, Asquith said. Before 2011, he said, the corps last dredged the harbor in 1998.
Watching for sand
Sand replenishment at Presque Isle is one of Erie’s most closely-watched government projects year after year, as the park awaits notice of how much it will receive and when. In 2016, the park received no federal funds for replenishment, but used $1.5 million in state funding and $500,000 left from previous projects.
The prospects for Presque Isle State Park getting $1.5 million from the federal government in 2019 appeared to increase on Oct. 10. Trump promised sand during his campaign visit to Erie with U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, of Butler, R-16th Dist., who was re-elected on Nov. 6.
On Tuesday, the Buffalo District of the Army Corps praised the receipt of the federal funding for all the projects in the district, which includes the lakeshore in Erie County as well as Cleveland and Rochester, New York.
“This is a critical time for investments in our nation’s infrastructure,” Lt. Col. Jason Toth, commander of the Army Corps’ Buffalo District, said in a statement. “I am encouraged that such a large investment is being made across the lower watershed of Lakes Erie and Ontario, directly contributing to economic growth, quality of life, environmental health and national security for the American people.”
Source: Goerie.com
