Posted on February 23, 2021
Though Point Pleasant Beach did not experience the cliff-like escarpment of its beaches like neighboring Bay Head and Ortley Beach, the borough was left far from unscathed in the Feb. 1-3 nor’easter that pummeled the Jersey Shore.
“The beach erosion here has been similar in many regards in terms of how much sand we lost,” said Mayor Paul Kinitra at a borough council meeting this week. “Last off-season, [erosion revealed] one or two sections near the outfall pipe. It goes back about six sections now and it is fully exposed.”
The outfall pipe, which is owned by the Ocean County Utilities Authority, was built in 2018 to replace an older pipe before the beach was replenished by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps oversaw the construction of the new pipe – a 60-inch reinforced concrete and steel cylinder.
Kinitra estimated the borough lost about 60-feet of sand in the storm, some of which will return with the spring tides and some of which will not.
“The Corps of Engineers is saying they are not doing anything until the off-season of 2022 at the earliest,” Kinitra said.
In the interim, there is scuttlebutt in Trenton that the state may assist coastal communities with their efforts to repair damage from the storm.
“I believe there is a good chance that that may occur,” Kinitra said of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s involvement. “It’s a group effort on multiple fronts and hopefully it will get us back to where we need to be.”
