Jon Hurdle reports for NJ Spotlight
Get ready for storm-surge barriers, floodwalls, and levees to protect New Jersey’s flood-prone back bays from sea-level rise, but don’t expect them to be built for at least another decade.
That’s the latest message from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is doing a massive multiyear study on how to defend the back bays from higher seas and bigger storms as the climate changes.
Many shore towns are seeing downward pressure on real estate prices amid growing public awareness that coastal properties are vulnerable to rising seas.
A new study on how sea-level rise is affecting real estate values on the U.S. East Coast said Ocean City experienced the biggest slowdown of property prices among 20 cities studied between 2005 and 2017 — greater even than Miami Beach, which is often seen as a poster child for the vulnerability of coastal cities.
Prices in Ocean City are now an aggregate $530 million lower than they would be without sea-level rise, according to the study from First Street Foundation, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, and Columbia University. Seven other Jersey Shore towns were among the top 20 cities for real estate losses.
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Among 17 states covered, New Jersey’s real estate losses were the second highest, at $4.5 billion, after Florida with $5.4 billion, the study said.
First word from the Corps of Engineers
The Corps released an interim report on the early results of its work. It said storm-surge barriers are “viable options” at several locations including Manasquan Inlet and Absecon Inlet but probably would be wrong for some other sites because their costs would outweigh benefits, and they could cause environmental damage.
To protect places including Cape May City, Stone Harbor/Avalon, and Ocean City, flood walls and levees are “potentially viable,” the report said.
But it warned that structural measures such as flood walls could spoil the views that draw many visitors or residents to the back bays and could lead to the loss of natural habitats.
Raising the roof
| Frank Brill photo |
Another option would be to raise houses, as is now required for new construction in many areas of the Shore following superstorm Sandy in 2012. It also said there are environmental benefits to buying the most vulnerable coastal properties and turning the land into open space that becomes a buffer to rising seas — a policy that’s already followed by New Jersey’s Blue Acres program.
Nature-based coastal defenses like living shorelines and reefs could also play a part, it said.
And it warned that its primary focus is on managing the risk associated with storm-surges rather than so-called nuisance flooding that typically occurs because of the failure of storm sewers, which are not a federal responsibility.
Whatever options are finally chosen, they will likely be “massive in scale” and may cost “several billion dollars,” said the Army Corps, which is working with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
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