The Courier - May 8, 2008

FLOOD MAP FALLOUT

U.S. Army Corps looks to re-examine K'burg project

    Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., has been told by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that shore protection projects in the Bayshore are not adequate.
    Pallone said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has told him its' project recommendations were adequate all along. "To redo the dune projects [in Keansburg and Middletown] would take a minimum of five years," he said. "I have no reason to believe it would make a difference anyway."
    USACE Project Manager Daniel FaIt, from the New York district, defined the basics of shore flood protection. "A dune is a flat area," he explained. "It is a semicircular pile of dirt that blocks some force when a storm comes."
    Falt described a levee as a man-made structure, usually like an earth embankment. "[Levees] are typically alongside a river, sometimes with armoring stone," he noted. ""When they're put on a beach is when they're referred to as "berms.' A dune is in its natural state."
    The crux of the situation is that a dune does not quite meet FEMA's criteria of a levee, FaIt said. "FEMA would like a dune to be considered a 'real levee.' "
    He said there was an actual berm constructed between Port Monmouth and East Keansburg in the 1970s. "FEMA has not let us know this levee improvement is [now] insufficient," he said.
    Falt said there were also shore protection projects authorized in 1982 for the Keansburg-Middletown area. "Whether those [projects] are suitable for FEMA or not, I have no idea," he said. "FEMA sent a letter to the state [in March] saying the beach berm doesn't meet their criteria in the area."
    Pallone said the USACE is looking into the possibility of redoing the dunes and adding to the Keansburg project.
    FaIt noted that the Keansburg Beach and Dune System was disaccredited under FEMA's new map modernization efforts.
    He said the situation now is to assess the projects. "[The engineers] will have to go in and reexamine the Keansburg shore protection project, even though it was just completed," FaIt concluded.

- Melissa I. Gaffney