The Courier - May 29, 2008

FLOOD MAP FALLOUT

Army Corps of Engineers discussed
K'burg beach replenishment project

By MELISSA L. GAFFNEY
Staff Writer

    Daniel FaIt, a project manager for the U.S Army Corps of Engineers New York District, said the Army Corps recently completed a storm protection re-evaluation in November.
    The estimated $39.8 million beach fill renourishment project in the Keansburg and East Keansburg areas is one FaIt said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not take into consideration when it began re-evaluating Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs).
    According to the draft reevaluation report, the Flood Control Act of 1962 originally authorized the Beach Erosion and Hurricane Protection Project for Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay.
    FaIt said there were also levee improvements built between Port Monmouth and East Keansburg during the 1970s. "FEMA has not let [the Army Corps] know [the berm] is insufficient," he said.
    The 2007 project areas included the shoreline of Laurence Harbor, located in Old Bridge Township; Keansburg; East Keansburg, recently renamed North Middletown; and Middletown Township.
    According to the draft, "The selected plan for the Keansburg and East Keansburg area provides for renourishment of the original beach fill features of the authorized project for 50 years following the 1968 construction, which covers two (at five years apart) renourishment operations for the 14,400 feet of shoreline."
    The renourishment alternatives are meant to provide coastal storm damage reduction resulting from tidal inundation, wave attack, storm recession and long-term erosion, according to the re-evaluation draft.

Standards and terms

    Fait said FEMA wants to provide storm protection, but the agency does not see the Army Corps' projects as providing enough shore protection.
    He said the agency is trying to locate the country's flooding risk and be honest about it. "It looks like [residents] are going to have to pay [flood insurance] before [the Army Corps] can come up with a solution," he said.
    Notably, Fait said FEMA changed its guidelines for insurance purposes. "[The agency] won't accept a beach berm as providing protection," he explained. "That's what [the· Army Corps] has always done."
    He said the original project during the 1970s placed beach fill in. the Middletown, Keansburg and East Keansburg areas.
    FaIt said the beach fill has also been referred to as the beach berm, or a dune. "A berm is a flat, semi-circular pile of dirt," he explained. " A levee is a manmade structure, usually like an earth embankment."
    He said FEMA no longer considers the dune to meet its criteria of a levee.
    Fait also mentioned the floodgate on the other side of the beach berm between Port Monmouth and East Keansburg. "In areas where you have a creek, it sometimes makes sense to basically put a flood wall up," he explained. "It keeps the water from coming up any further."
    He described the floodgate as a door, allowing water to move through freely. Fait said FEMA's report suggests the floodgate might be too low, according to the agency's new standards.
    FaIt said Army Corps engineers have also reexamined the floodgate and that it might need to be augmented, as well. "Those are very expensive," he noted.
    FaIt said Army Corps engineers are· re-evaluating the draft report to look at other structural changes that would meet FEMA's new requirements.

The renourishment

    Fait said the· situation is very confusing for both the agencies and residents because the Army Corps has a project in the Keansburg area already in place and it wants to renourish it. "The [renourishment] would· provide shore protection," he said.
    The engineer said the current draft for the reevaluation might be made final and a new report drafted in light of the current situation. "Whatever the Corps can do [will] take several years," Fait said.
    He cited new studies, updated designs and appropriated funds as reason why any action is going to take time.
    Fait said that, either way, the Army Corps has not had federal funding to build up and· replenish the Keansburg beaches for many years.
    According to the draft reevaluation, the first beach renourishment at Keansburg and East Keansburg would have been during 2009 at a cost of about $32,5 million. The second renourishment at a later date would cost about $7.4 million, according to the draft.
    FaIt said it is very difficult to get that kind of money now. He said the first beach replenishment has not been completed because the Army Corps did not have the federal funding.
    He said the beach fill is like a "periodic booster shot," and that the Keansburg beaches have not been replenished in a while.
    Notably, Fait said some good news is that the berm has actually grown in places because the wind blows it and plant life accumulates. "In some places, [the berm] is better than when [the Army Corps] built it," he said.
    FaIt said the Army Corps wants to make the beaches resistant to storm damage, but that these projects would not provide any insurance relief.
    "[The Army Corps] doesn't generally build to reduce peoples' insurance," FaIt concluded. "It builds to provide protection. Incidentally, it does help and people don't often need insurance."
    FaIt said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would be sending representatives to the FEMA Open House scheduled during mid-June.