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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Summer Beach Pumping In Delaware Raises Questions

FENWICK ISLAND -- Amid questions about the timing at the height of the summer season, a vast beach replenishment project is expected to get underway any day now in Fenwick Island.

The Army Corps of Engineers this week began the staging process for a federally-funded emergency beach replenishment project in Fenwick Island, the first stop in what will be a months-long restoration process for the beaches along the Delaware coast. During the project, roughly 389,000 cubic yards of sand will be pumped onto the beach in Fenwick from offshore borrow sources and spread over about 6,500 feet of shoreline. The intent is to restore the beach and protective dune line ravaged during Hurricane Sandy last October and other winter and early spring storms to their pre-storm conditions.

While few question the intent of the project, concerns have been raised about its timing at the height of the summer season. The contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, began the staging process for the project on Wednesday with a huge pipe extending from the dredging equipment offshore onto the beach at Atlantic Ave. Also on the beach on Wednesday was the tall tri-pod-like piece of equipment that has become familiar to local residents and visitors during recent beach replenishment projects.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Questions? HERE'S the freakin' question:
How in the world did somebody - somebody in this mess of a government we have nowadays - "OK" the replenishment of a beach that NO Delaware citizen can occupy unless you are one of a handful of property owners along the coast?
For miles and miles of beachfront along Route 1, there are signs that say "no beach access".
You Delaware suckers are paying for the rich people's private beach. Unreal.
It would've been a good moment for the people of Delaware to speak up and open these beaches.
Somebody dropped the ball.

Anonymous said...

They do it right before hurricane season so they can do it again next year. Job security for the Army Corps.

Anonymous said...

How much will this welfare for the wealthy cost the public taxpayers?

Anonymous said...

I would say that the people with the million dollar+ homes on the beach could and would fund damn near the entire project - IF they wanted to save their homes and their private beach that is getting smaller and smaller each year.
This would make sense - which is precisely why the government didn't pursue this avenue of funding. It just makes too much sense.
Delaware taxpayers should insist that access be made available through those gated beachfront communities to the beach that they are paying for.
A pared-down analogy: Imagine that your community decided to build a swimming pool and asked for your monetary contribution, then told you that you can't swim in it.
Isn't that what's happening with this replenishment project?

Anonymous said...

Andy Harris won't let this waste of taxes happen in Ocean City - he's a T-Party man.

Anonymous said...

total waste of tax payer money. to save stupid rich peoples property that were to ingnorant to build on the beach. and fools in govenment letting them.
all this sand/money willl wash back into the ocean in the next storm. like watching pennies wash away.
idiots. you can''t stop mother nature.