N.J. is taking North Wildwood to court over the town’s planned dune repairs

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued North Wildwood this week seeking to stop it from buttressing its dune system with what the state calls an illegal 400-foot long steel bulkhead the Shore community plans to install after fall storms caused beach erosion.

A Superior Court judge turned back the state’s request to immediately stop all work and instead set a hearing for January.

The suit is part of an increasingly acrimonious rift between the state’s lead environmental agency and North Wildwood, where multiple storms this year severely eroded some beaches — a signature of the growing impact of climate change on New Jersey’s beaches.

A temporary dune project the town undertook earlier this year was partly destroyed by another storm weeks before Memorial Day. Then, the remnants of Hurricane Ian struck in October, causing cliffs to form on dunes that were eaten away. North Wildwood has spent millions in 2022 trying to keep its beaches intact.

The tiff between the state and town started in October when North Wildwood asked the DEP for an emergency authorization to install the bulkhead, reshape dunes between 13th and 16th Avenues, tear out some decking, and erect jersey barriers to keep people out. The state has authority to oversee the shoreline and plans for its protection.

The state approved the barriers and decking removal. But it said no to the new bulkhead at 15th Avenue and regrading of dunes because there was no immediate threat of “loss of life or property” and because the new infrastructure could make erosion worse.

» READ MORE: North Wildwood defies a state order on repairing beaches battered by Hurricane Ian and nor’easter

North Wildwood said it was in a bind and defied the DEP. The town worked on the dunes, saying they had become a safety hazard, and ordered the bulkhead anyway.

That led to a series of letters between DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette and North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello, culminating in this week’s lawsuit.

Larry Hajna, a DEP spokesperson, said Thursday the agency would not comment since the issue is now in court.

However, LaTourette wrote to Rosenello Dec. 1 with the state’s position.

“We again remind the city that taking perceived ‘self-help’ measures, including the destruction of dunes or other regulated coastal resources, the unauthorized installation of bulkheads, or other regulated activities without required DEP review or permits, is a violation of the state’s environmental laws, some of which carry severe monetary and other penalties,” LaTourette wrote. “And, quite importantly, the taking of such unauthorized actions without proper engineering review by DEP may only further exacerbate coastal erosion, creating unintended consequences for the city, its residents, and neighbors.”

Rosenello said the town takes issue with the state’s suit.

“We are heading into the winter storm season, and the Department of Environmental Protection Act actually has the gall to ask a state judge to tell a beach town not to protect itself,” Rosenello said Thursday.

Rosenello called Judge Michael Blee’s decision not to grant the DEP’s request to immediately stop the bulkhead project “a very big win.”

The bulkhead is expected to arrive next week in 30-foot long, 3-foot wide steel planks that would need to be driven into the ground, connected to one another, and capped to bind the assembly together.

However, Rosenello said the town will likely wait until another storm hits and causes another hole in the dune at 15th Avenue before installing the bulkhead. He said town officials would delay immediate installation out of “good faith.” Even if the town does erect the bulkhead, Rosenello said, it can be taken down. Officials agree with the DEP that the bulkhead could worsen erosion but say they have no other option.

The bulkhead is the only practical and affordable thing the city can do, Rosenello said, given the failure to reach an agreement on repairs promised after Superstorm Sandy.

But the DEP, in its suit, called the plan a “blatant disregard of the department’s written direction to refrain from installing a permanent steel bulkhead … without any review or statutorily required approval from the Department.

“Making matters worse,” the suit stated, ”the proposed permanent bulkhead will be constructed in the location of protected vegetated dunes and sensitive wetland areas, both of which will be destroyed causing irreparable harm to the environment if North Wildwood is not restrained.”

The state said more study is needed before the erosion can be addressed.

The suit is the latest reminder of how North Wildwood has been left exposed, Rosenello said. Local officials bristle that a promised dune replenishment by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and DEP after Superstorm Sandy in 2012 still hasn’t happened.

North Wildwood is on a barrier island known as Five Mile Beach, which contains North Wildwood, Wildwood, West Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Diamond Beach. All are separate municipalities; Diamond Beach is part of Lower Township.

The year after Sandy struck on Oct. 29, 2012, the state and U.S. Army Corps mapped out a complex plan to address erosion on the island from Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet. In language updated this year, the Army Corps noted that while North Wildwood was once the largest beach in the state, it has suffered “significant erosion of its berm and dune” and gets flooded repeatedly.

However, there still is no real movement on the plan because the state has unable to get all the towns involved to sign off on it.

So Rosenello said that, at least for now, North Wildwood is on its own and has to act.