How much sand has been brought in to battle erosion on New Jersey beaches? Enough to fill 62,000 Olympic swimming pools.

“The erosions are still in progress, and unless checked will … result in further loss of physical property.”

That was the conclusion reached in 1922 by a team of experts in a landmark analysis of New Jersey beaches’ never-ending battle with the Atlantic.

A century later, despite sinking land and rising seas in a warming climate, the beaches fronting $80 billion worth of real estate on the barrier islands have endured. That’s thanks greatly to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; taxpayers; and about 200 million cubic yards of piped-in sand. That’s enough to fill more than 62,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

No state has had more sand pumped on its beaches than New Jersey, and more than $50 million worth of beach-nourishment projects are in the pipeline for the fall. Why do this? It works, most of the time. But it has cost more than $2 billion so far. Can this go on?

Here is a brief look at the battle of the beaches through the sands of time.

• 1930s

  In 1936, 13 years after the nation’s first beach-nourishment project, which was on Coney Island and privately funded, Absecon receives New Jersey’s first beachfill, federally subsidized.

• 1940s

  On Sept. 14, 1944, “The Great Atlantic Hurricane” erases 60% of Atlantic City’s Boardwalk, generates 25-foot waves and devastates barrier island towns. The Jersey Shore has weathered innumerable powerful coastal storms, but in the realm of actual hurricanes its destructive powers might have been unrivaled.

  

• 1950s

  Beach erosion is an issue in the U.S Senate election campaign of 1958, in which Democrat Harrison A. Williams promises to push “strenuously in Washington for federal aid to New Jersey’s Atlantic beaches.” Williams wins and later becomes an architect of the National Flood Insurance Program, a catalyst for coastal development.

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• 1960s

  The great Ash Wednesday Storm in March 1962 is a watershed for beachfill, with over six million cubic yards of sand applied to Jersey beaches, to that point the most-ever in one year. “This sucker lasted three days,” Long Beach Township Mayor Joe Mancini said. In all, a record 47 federally supported projects across the country are undertaken, an annual record that still stands. More than half of those are on New Jersey and Delaware shores.

  

• 1970s

  A procession of nor'easters in 1978 with their onshore gales and one of the most severe winters on record erase sand from beaches all along the coast. “Everybody’s suffered severe erosion,” a state official said after a February blizzard. Said Sea Isle City’s mayor, “We have no more dunes.”

• 1980s

  Decadal highlights include the February 1983 blizzard; Hurricane Gloria in 1985; and a monster snowstorm in January 1987. And did we mention nor’easters? The New Jersey Master Plan concludes: “Beach erosion as a problem exists only where development has taken place, and where man has attempted to impose a static shoreline.” That observation by the Department of Environmental Protection would have no apparent effect on shoreline development.

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• 1990s

  The “Perfect Storm” of October 1991; the winter storm of December 1992; blizzards in March 1993 and March 1996; Tropical Storm Danielle in September 1992; Bertha in July 1996; and El Niño nor’easters in 1998 punctuate an especially brisk storm decade. Send in the pumps. The decade sets a new standard for Jersey beachfill. Said one state environmental official, “This keeps happening, and we keep repairing. Maybe there’s something else we ought to look at.”

  

• 2000s

  More nor’easters pound the beaches, including a particularly potent one in April ‘07 and another in November ‘09, spawned by the remnants of Ida – no relation to the notorious Ida of 2021. Ida the First incited winds up to 40 mph and waves up to 18 feet. It yanked 125,700 cubic yards of sand off of Avalon alone.

• 2010s

  Sandy. Need we say more? Maybe not, but Sandy, which had lost its hurricane status when it made landfall in October 2012, wasn’t the decade’s only sand-eater. Its tropical-origin helpers included Irene in August 2011; Hermine in September 2016; and Jose a year later. Among the major nor’easters were those of March 2013; January 2015; January 2016, a memorable snowstorm in Philadelphia; and March 2017.

  

By 1939, enough sand was added to fill…

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Without all this pumped sand, where would the barrier-island shorelines be today? Very possibly about where they are, says Western Carolina University geologist Andrew Coburn. They just wouldn’t be hosting casinos, boardwalks, roller coasters, or fudge shops. Left alone, barrier islands naturally migrate back and forth with the flow of time and storm waves.

“The beaches are nourished not to protect the beach but to protect what’s behind the beach,” said Coburn, associate director of the university’s Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines.

Climate change is complicating beach-saving efforts. Howard Marlowe, one of the nation’s most-prominent coastal-development lobbyists, says the Biden administration has had its head in the sand when it comes to worldwide warming’s impact on the shores.

“While we need to be concerned about rising temperatures, there needs to be leadership on rising seas,” he said.

But it’s not just rising seas, said Rutgers University geologist Norb Psuty. The land is sinking as a result of subsidence, a natural process. He estimates that sea level along the Jersey coast has risen about 10 inches since 1962.

Coburn believes that to survive, beach towns will need some mix of “relocation” or “retreat” and protection. Sand-pumping has been an effective way to blunt the effects of storm waves, and Coburn says that given the enormous economic investments at stake, it will have to continue in perpetuity. Shore development will always be at risk, he said.

‘It’s one of the most unpredictable, most dynamic, powerful environments in the world,” he said, “where land, air, and water meet.”