Beach replenishment funds less than anticipated
| The debate over New Jersey beach replenishment |
One lone Jersey beach will be looked after in the proposed 2010 federal budget, leaving some state lawmakers arguing for more funding.
The money set aside in Obama’s budget was much less than what supporters had hoped for. But the cutback isn’t too disappointing for environmentalists who criticize the replenishment projects as Band-aids that help a few at the expense of many.
The decision by Obama to put replenishment money in the budget marks a departure from the way the funds were granted during George W. Bush’s time in office.
From the Star-Ledger:
Over the past 15 years, beach projects, which have been done on nearly all of the coastal states, have gradually been nearly eliminated from the federal budget, but New Jersey legislators had been particularly effective at persuading their colleagues to include money for the projects as special earmarks. Since 1995, those earmarks have brought $330 million to New Jersey beach projects, more than any other state.
Read recent reports on the dwindling replenishment funds here and here.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:18 am
” One lone Jersey beach will be looked after in the proposed 2010 federal budget, a sharp drop from years past “, actually this statement is not true. In the past 25 yrs. not a dime was placed in the President’s budget for so called Beach Replenishment, until this yr. All of the $$ for Army Corp. beach projects have been obtained by way of Congressional earmarks and it’s been to the tune of billions! This myth that somehow the $$ has stopped flowing from the Presidential budget is just that a myth. Obama has in fact reversed 25 yrs. of precedent and now “the Sand Lobby” wants their billions enshrined as a part of his budget going forward. They’ll still get their $$ the hard way through Congressional wrangling if need be, but it’s far easier with Presidential approval. Marlow and Co. the K street Lobbyists that works DC for the Sand Lobby is doing a great job for these folks and is purposely confusing an ignorant MSM on this topic. He was able to sell the Obama people on the specious notion that these wasteful pork barrel projects somehow save jobs and this is why his admin. has taken the bait. Of course it’s nonsense, but when your trying to show a scared and depressed public that your actually trying to save and create jobs you’ll buy any nonsense, even this crap. The only people making anything from so called Beach Replenishment are the companies associated with the Army Corp. in these projects. It’s an example of another bail out for a few very wealthy families. The sand is also another bail out for a few thousand wealthy homeowners, as it’s mainly going to end up in front of their vacation homes. The public will pay billions in the end for these temporary beaches and they’ll be doing it over and over again for 50 yrs or more if these people have their way. Is it effective? Not really, the temp. beaches erode at a 2X to 12X the rate of a “natural beach.” In a hurricane situation or BIG Nor’easter these projects provide little real protection. However, they give great photo ops for the pols that buy into the delusion. It allows them to say to their constituents they’re doing something for erosion and property protection. In reality they really are just wasting huge amounts of tax payer $$ on fancy sand castles that just wash away as beaches do. What’s next snow to Alaska because of global warming? We live in a time of scams cleverly presented and packaged but scams none the less. Beach Replenishment is one of the worst.