SOUTH JERSEY (AP/KYW Newsradio) — A decade-long battle between the city of North Wildwood and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection over the condition of its beaches and protective sand dunes came to an amicable end on Tuesday.
North Wildwood City Council voted to drop a lawsuit after securing the state funding it needed for beach replenishment, and it also agreed to settle with the DEP in lieu of paying $12 million in fines.
Recent state and federal shore protection projects have helped virtually every Jersey Shore town other than the Wildwoods. After earlier storms battered North Wildwood beaches, the city decided low sand levels in its dunes constituted emergency measures — without taking the time to secure the necessary permits.
North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello said those actions came with predictable consequences. The DEP fined North Wildwood $12 million for conducting unauthorized and potentially harmful beach repair work.
“The municipality took matters into our own hands — moving sand, building bulkheads — that, had we not done, we absolutely would have sustained catastrophic infrastructure damage,” he said. “There are rules and regulations and it’s [the DEP’s] job to enforce those rules and regulations. So it was kind of a rock and an immovable object meeting each other.”
The city turned around and sued the DEP for the $30 million it spent on shore protections — including sand it had trucked in and dumped on its ever-eroding beaches — after not being included in statewide efforts.
Although it has been prone to severe erosion, North Wildwood has not yet gotten a full beach replenishment project from the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, due in part to funding delays and difficulty in obtaining easements from private property owners.
Rosenello credited Gov. Phil Murphy and state Sen. Mike Testa for stepping in last April to approve an interim emergency beach replenishment project. They also set in motion further shore protection projects for the near future, which includes a seawall extension.
With those projects on the way, North Wildwood City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to drop its lawsuit, and the city agreed to pay a settlement to the DEP in lieu of fines.
“It’s good to put this behind us and move forward,” added Rosenello. “All we wanted was to be treated the same as everyone else.”
The settlement will be subject to a 30-day public comment period before taking effect next year.
“The resolution of pre-existing compliance matters will enable DEP to advance both the North Wildwood seawall and Five Mile Island engineered beach and dune projects, which we expect to begin construction in 2025,” spokesperson Larry Hajna said.
Stephen Rochette, a spokesperson for the Army Corps, said an exact start date for the project has not yet been set, due in part to ongoing property acquisition by the state.
In addition to ending the litigation, North Wildwood will contribute $1 million to the eventual cost of the federal beach replenishment project once it arrives in the city and will pay $700,000 into a state water pollution control fund, Rosenello said.
The mayor noted that while the DEP has understandable practices, too much red tape can be detrimental in the face of a climate crisis.
“I think that government, as time goes on, is going to have to figure out how to be more efficient in reacting to Mother Nature’s curveballs,” he said. “When you work in a shore town or you’re the mayor of a shore town or you own property in the shore town, every dollar you spend on shore protection is a dollar well spent.”
In a statement to KYW Newsradio, the DEP thanked Rosenello and North Wildwood representatives for developing shore protection measures for the city and Five Mile Island.
“The resolution of preexisting compliance matters will enable DEP to advance both the North Wildwood seawall and Five Mile Island engineered beach and dune projects, which we expect to begin construction in 2025,” said a DEP representative.
“To ensure fulsome public review of the proposed settlement, the notice of Administrative Consent Order will be published in the DEP Bulletin on December 18, 2024, and is subject to a 30-day public comment period.”