State Blames North Wildwood For Recent Dune Breach

NORTH WILDWOOD, NJ — For years, North Wildwood has battled beach erosion. But the state, after authorizing the construction of a $400,000 emergency steel bulkhead, told the city it is to blame for the latest dune breach this month.

In a letter to the city from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection obtained by NJ Advance Media, Commissioner Shawn LaTourette told North Wildwood that it had contributed to the conditions allowing for the recent dune breach.

"Had the city collaborated with DEP in review and potential redesign discussions on its long-pending CAFRA individual permit, city-led shore protection measures could have been approved and built in the year that has passed since the city's first EA denial in October 2022," LaTourette wrote, according to NJ Advance Media.

North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello told NJ Advance Media that their CAFRA permit, which regulates construction in coastal areas, has been going back and forth with the DEP since 2020.

The city has lost about 1,000 feet of beach over the past five to 10 years, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. North Wildwood and other municipalities on the barrier island have been waiting for the Army Corps' "Five Mile Island Project" to replenish their beaches, but the project is not set to begin until 2025.

Rosenello told DEP officials that it was impractical to replenish parts of the beach before the Armp Corps project, according to the NJ Advance Media report.

LaTourette responded that while DEP understood, inaction was not acceptable as replenishing would still offer protection.

DEP and North Wildwood have been facing a legal battle over the past year as well, after the city built their own bulkheads, bypassing the state. At the time, Rosenello said that there was imminent danger to people, with a 15-foot drop from the eroded dune's top to the beach below.

Rosenello told NJ Advance Media that LaTourette and Gov. Phil Murphy are more concerned with following the rules "than dealing with the very real challenges that climate change is presenting at the Jersey Shore."