When a proposal to build a giant sea wall to protect the region from the next Superstorm Sandy was unveiled in 2018, it was met with strong opposition by environmentalists and some local officials, who said it would destroy the ecology of North Jersey's tidal rivers and redirect a potentially devastating storm surge to the Jersey Shore.
Now those plans have been halted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after some concerns expressed by another interested party: President Donald Trump.
Corps officials said this week that a "funding lapse" in the federal budget has forced them to shelve a study of the feasibility of several storm barrier projects, including a 6-mile series of tide gates and sea walls from Sandy Hook in Monmouth County to Breezy Point in Queens.
The move comes about a month after Trump tweeted that the $119 million project "is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway."
Trump ended the tweet saying, "Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops & buckets ready!"
Drowning was the most common cause of death from Sandy, which killed 117 people. Most of the deaths occurred in New York and New Jersey, with 53 and 35 respectively.
Corps officials did not comment on whether Trump's tweet affected their work.
The study "has to compete for funding with all of the other studies in the Corps of Engineers National portfolio," Michael Embrich, a spokesman for the Army corps' New York office, said in a statement. "The study did not receive federal appropriation funding in the Corps fiscal year 2020 work plan."
The tide gates were one of six proposals that were being considered by the corps and environmental officials from both states to help prevent the kind of damage Superstorm Sandy brought to the region in October 2012.
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Sandy propelled a record 12-foot storm surge from the Atlantic Ocean into New York Harbor, flooding lower Manhattan, communities along the Hudson River and several Meadowlands towns, including Moonachie and Little Ferry. It caused $72 billion in damage nationwide and damaged or destroyed 346,000 homes in New Jersey.
A report issued last year by the Army corps showed four barrier proposals of varying complexity and scope that would cost from $32 billion, for a series of surge gates in rivers, to $119 billion for the 6-mile barrier.
Although other states and countries use such barriers, environmental groups say those projects would irrevocably damage the Hudson, Passaic and Hackensack rivers and Raritan Bay by changing tidal conditions, altering fish migration patterns and reducing the ability of the tide to dilute industrial pollution.
They were also concerned that the barrier would divert a storm surge from New York Harbor to the northern stretch of the Jersey Shore, which was severely damaged by Sandy.
But a group of engineers and architects called the Storm Surge Working Group say barriers need to be an essential part of protecting New York and New Jersey.
Suzanne DiGeronimo, a New Jersey architect and member of the group, called the halting of the study two months before publication "a waste of talent and federal resources."
She said other cities like London have benefited from tide gates for decades without harming marine life.
"It is going to happen just a matter of argument on how much will coastlines in New Jersey rise, and by when," DiGeronimo said. "Storm surges are the heart attacks we can prevent if we take care."
"Not to have any study at all, not having an open discussion of options is tragic for New York and New Jersey," she said. "Not to have the option of federal funding for any agreed-upon option is unconscionable for New York and New Jersey - the largest urban area in the U.S."
But several New Jersey environmentalists who work to protect the region's waterways were pleased that the plan was halted.
"The idea was extraordinarily bad," said Bill Sheehan, executive director of the Hackensack Riverkeeper. "So there's nothing negative about taken this off the table except for the fact that they probably spent millions of dollars planning and studying this."
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Greg Remaud, executive director of NY/NJ Baykeeper, said the corps' study was too narrow, focusing almost solely on barriers. He wants a multi-agency study that includes a greater range of resiliency options, including restrictions on coastal development, property buyouts and strategic retreat from low-lying areas that are already developed.
Embrich said an environmental feasibility study that was supposed to be issued this summer will be postponed indefinitely.
Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, a New Jersey-based coastal advocacy group, was concerned that the barrier plans could resurface in the future.
He likened it to the infamous Passaic River Flood Tunnel proposal, a much-derided Corps of Engineers project that has been shelved and resurrected several times over 40 years.
"It's good news that this is being halted, because it was an unacceptable project in every way possible," Dillingham said. "But I don't see the Army corps putting a stake in the heart of this one. I don't think it will be altogether abandoned until there's some act of Congress."
Scott Fallon covers the environment for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about how New Jersey’s environment affects your health and well-being, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: fallon@northjersey.com Twitter: @newsfallon
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Army corps shelves NJ barrier plan against Sandy-like storm surge after Trump criticism - NorthJersey.com
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