North Wildwood in legal battle with state over beach erosion repairs
NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. -- A city on the Jersey Shore is in a legal battle with the state over its efforts to repair beach erosion.
New Jersey fined North Wildwood $12 million for unauthorized beach repairs that the state says could actually make the problem worse.
The city had asked the state for emergency permission to build a steel bulkhead along the most heavily eroded section of its beachfront.
North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello told CBS New York the problem stems from the fact the city never received federal money that was allocated for resiliency projects in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
"The federal government actually allocated billions of dollars to do resiliency projects up and down the entire Jersey Shore. The rest of the entire Jersey Shore has been the recipient or beneficiary of those projects except for North Wildwood," Rosenello said.
Meanwhile, the city is suing to recoup the $30 million it says it spent trucking sand to the site for the past decade.
"The city has had to spend about $30 million of our local taxpayer money on different sand back-passing projects, as well as the installation of some steel bulkheads," said the mayor. "The state fined us for the installation of those steel bulkheads, and they claim that the steel bulkhead might cause more beach erosion, but that argument just doesn't really bear water. It's almost like an arsonist complaining about the water damage caused by the firemen when they put the fire out that they started, because these bulkheads are necessary -- because, again, the state, the Murphy administration and the DEP have not activated those tens of millions of dollars in federal money that are available to do shore protection in North Wildwood."
So what does this mean for homeowners and beachgoers?
"We have sections of town that are protected, we have sections of town that are not protected. So if you're in the area where you're not protected, that's a big concern, it's a very stressful situation. I hear from those property owners frequently," the mayor said.
CBS New York reached out to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Projection. They responded by providing a copy of the letter they sent Rosenello on Jan. 11, 2023, outlining the various violations and the fines associated with them.