Posted on November 3, 2021
Reversing a Trump-era decision, the Biden administration has said beach towns can’t use sand from protected areas for beach nourishment projects
As officials in Carolina and Kure beaches celebrated, those in Wrightsville Beach stewed.
The reason was that after more than a few nervy months and heavy politicking in Washington, federal funds had finally been secured for the nourishment projects planned for New Hanover County’s southern beach towns.
But missing from the announcement earlier this month was any mention of funding for New Hanover County’s third beach town, Wrightsville Beach, which also was scheduled to see fresh sand in winter 2022.
Local officials didn’t think their beach-boosting projects, all part of long-term federal projects that guarantee a periodic injection of sand every few years, would be a problem once they received authorization from Congress in December 2020.
But officials were shocked to find out in January that funding for the county’s beach projects, which are on different nourishment cycles but aligned for the winter 2021-22 dredging window, hadn’t been included in the Army Corps of Engineers’ work plan.
Fast-forward nine months and the corps has been able to “reprogram” funds from other projects for the Carolina and Kure beach nourishments, which are contracted out and constructed as a single project.
But a new issue, along with the funding question, has surfaced that could erode Wrightsville Beach’s project. And it’s a decision that could have long-term impacts for other nourishment projects along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico just as environmentalists warn beach communities could face increasing pressures — prompting the need for more frequent and extensive nourishment projects — due to weather-driven changes brought on by climate change.
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