After Millions in Sand Washed Away, Frank Morano Asks: What Did Jersey Shore Beach Projects Save?

ATLANTIC CITY — When a powerful nor'easter chews through millions of dollars worth of newly placed sand along the Jersey Shore, it's easy to look at the battered beaches and conclude the money washed out to sea.

New York City Councilman and radio host Frank Morano says that's the wrong way to measure what happened.

The better question, he argues, is what didn't wash away.

“Beach replenishment is really infrastructure spending disguised as sand,” Morano said this week during an appearance on The AC Mike Lopez Show on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND.

“The sand isn't just there for beach blankets and umbrellas,” Morano said. “The Army Corps designs these wider beaches and dunes to absorb wave energy before it reaches homes, roads, utilities, businesses.”

His description closely matches how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defines the mission.

The federal agency says its Absecon Island project — protecting Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate and Longport — is specifically designed to reduce damage to homes and infrastructure from waves, high tides and storm surge.

And after last month's storm, one of the nation's top Army Corps officials used an even more vivid description.

The sand is supposed to take the hit.

‘Sacrificial sand projects’

D. Lee Forsgren, performing assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, toured the battered South Jersey coast Oct. 1 with U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew and other officials.

Forsgren called beach replenishment projects “sacrificial sand projects,” comparing them to the crumple zones built into automobiles.

“We don't put sand on these beaches to make them pretty beaches,” Forsgren said. “They are designed for storm damage reduction.”

That is essentially Morano's argument.

“You'd rather lose sand than houses, boardwalks, sewer system, streets,” Morano said.

The question has become particularly relevant after the September nor'easter hammered beaches that taxpayers had only recently paid to rebuild.

Federal officials estimated the storm ate through a substantial portion of approximately $99 million in recent beach replenishment work along the Jersey Shore, including projects in Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Strathmere, Avalon and Stone Harbor.

In Ocean City alone, the Army Corps awarded a $19.5 million contract earlier this year to place more than 1.6 million cubic yards of sand from 12th Street to the Seaview Road groin area.

That project is funded 65% by the federal government and 35% through non-federal funding.

Then the storm arrived.

DEP finds major erosion in South Jersey

A new post-storm assessment from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection underscores just how much punishment the coastline absorbed.

DEP surveyed more than 200 shoreline locations following the Sept. 21-28 nor'easter and identified 81 locations with notable erosion.

Fifty-three experienced minor erosion, 18 were classified as moderate and 10 sustained major erosion.

Among those receiving a major damage classification were Brigantine, Atlantic City, Stone Harbor and North Wildwood.

In Atlantic City, the storm left dramatic escarpments in portions of the beach, with drops of roughly 8 to 10 feet reported between the Boardwalk area and the remaining beach.

The damage is visually striking.

But erosion alone doesn't necessarily mean the beach project failed.

An engineered beach is built in part to give storms something to destroy before waves reach buildings and infrastructure behind it.

The Army Corps' Absecon Island project, for example, calls for a 200-foot-wide berm and dune reaching an elevation of 14.75 feet in Atlantic City. Ventnor, Margate and Longport have a 100-foot-wide berm and dune system.

The project also includes bulkhead and stone-revetment protection along the Absecon Inlet frontage of Atlantic City.

Atlantic City sand has been replaced repeatedly

The federal records also demonstrate just how much sand maintaining that protection requires.

The Army Corps placed approximately 4.95 million cubic yards during the initial Atlantic City and Ventnor project in 2004.

Another 1.1 million cubic yards followed in 2011, approximately 1.325 million in 2012 and another 1.3 million after Hurricane Sandy.

Additional projects followed.

Most recently, the Army Corps placed approximately 1.2 million cubic yards of sand in Atlantic City and Ventnor between November 2024 and February 2025.

Periodic nourishment of the Absecon Island project is authorized on a three-year cycle.

That recurring expense is precisely why Morano believes officials should go beyond telling taxpayers that sand is sacrificial.

He wants the return measured.

‘Sacrificial doesn't mean unquestionable’

Morano said acknowledging the protective function of beach replenishment doesn't mean government should write blank checks for sand indefinitely.

“The criticism is still legitimate,” he said. “If the taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars every few years, I think government at every level ... should be measuring this like any other capital project.”

Morano suggested several questions:

“How much property damage was avoided? How many years did the nourishment last? Which sections performed best?”

“So we shouldn't have a public policy of simply dump sand and then a storm comes and then we do that again,” he said.

His conclusion was succinct:

“Sacrificial doesn't mean unquestionable.”

“If taxpayers are spending $40 million at a clip, somebody should be able to show them the return on the investment.”

That's where the current post-storm assessment remains incomplete.

Federal and state officials are still evaluating the coastline to determine how much beach and dune material was lost, where repairs are most urgently needed and what type of assistance could be available.

South Jersey NewsBeat found extensive documentation explaining the engineering and economic rationale behind the federal beach projects, but no completed post-storm analysis yet putting a dollar value on the property and infrastructure damage prevented by the replenished beaches during this particular nor'easter.

Brigantine provides one clue

There is, however, evidence that coastal protection measures made a difference.

Brigantine Mayor Vince Sera said neighborhoods that suffered devastating flooding during Superstorm Sandy largely avoided similar damage during the September nor'easter.

The city has installed permanent flood pumps, portable pumps, floodgates and higher bulkheads since Sandy.

One Bayshore Avenue resident told The Philadelphia Inquirer that without the pumps and gates, her block would have been in serious trouble.

Ocean City's elevated Roosevelt Boulevard also remained above floodwaters and provided an evacuation route during the storm. Atlantic City has similarly installed pumps and rebuilt bulkheads in portions of the city.

Those projects aren't the same thing as beach nourishment, but collectively they demonstrate an increasingly important distinction in the coastal-protection debate:

Sand is one layer of defense. It isn't the only one.

That's also where Morano's argument intersects with a growing discussion among South Jersey officials.

Van Drew and state Sen. Vince Polistina have both recently called for examining more permanent structures — potentially including seawalls, groins or jetties — rather than relying exclusively on repeated beach nourishment.

Federal officials have likewise said hard structures are among the options being studied in vulnerable locations.

A town that disappeared

Morano also invoked one of Cape May County's most dramatic examples of what an unprotected coastline can do.

“South Cape May, if that doesn't sound familiar to a lot of people, it's because it doesn't exist anymore,” he said. “It was washed away in the 1940s.”

The history is slightly more complicated, but the substance of his point is correct.

South Cape May was once a separate borough west of Cape May. Years of erosion and storms steadily battered the community.

A New Jersey coastal vulnerability study says the 1944 hurricane and 1950 nor'easter washed away the former neighboring community, with remnants periodically appearing along Cape May Point's beaches.

The borough itself formally ceased to exist in 1945, following severe damage from earlier storms and the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944.

The former community is now largely associated with the protected landscape around South Cape May Meadows.

Morano's larger point is that beaches aren't simply recreational amenities.

They stand between the Atlantic Ocean and billions of dollars in homes, businesses, roads, utilities and public infrastructure.

So did the sand work?

For now, the answer is more complicated than looking at how much beach disappeared.

The DEP assessment confirms that the September nor'easter caused substantial erosion.

The Army Corps says that erosion is, to a degree, exactly what engineered beaches are designed to absorb.

And communities behind those beaches largely avoided the catastrophic oceanfront destruction that has accompanied some of New Jersey's worst historic storms.

But Morano's question remains unanswered in a way taxpayers can easily evaluate:

How much damage did those millions of dollars worth of sand actually prevent?

That answer may become clearer as the Army Corps and DEP complete their post-storm assessments.

Morano says it's a calculation government should be making every time public money goes back onto the beach.

“What didn't wash away because that sand took the hit?” he asked. “That's basically the engineering concept behind this.”

Then comes the other half of his argument.

If the sand is going to be replaced again, taxpayers deserve to know exactly what they received in return.

Frank Morano discussed the Jersey Shore's beach replenishment projects Monday on The AC Mike Lopez Show on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND. The program airs Monday through Friday from noon to 1 p.m.