High Tide Flooding Highlights The Need To Plan For Strategic Retreat NOW!
Murphy DEP Coastal Management Program And Climate Adaptation Strategy Are Inadequate
Climate Chaos Or Planning – That’s The Choice
NJ Spotlight reporter Jon Hurdle gave the NJ DEP another huge pass today in a story on coastal high tide flooding, see:
In an incredible case of amnesia, Hurdle seems to have forgotten that just yesterday he wrote a story about how the State of NJ (both DCA and DEP) enacted a new policy that elevation of homes is not a sound flood management policy.
Without even mentioning any of that, today he wrote a story that says that: elevation is a sound strategy, that there is no immediate need to act, that there is no State government role or need to plan and regulate, and that people will somehow – passively and gradually and acting individually and voluntarily – simply come to accept the need to relocate: (NJ Spotlight story)
But he [Shope] said while people can buy time simply by elevating their houses, residents along today’s coastline will gradually come to accept that they need to move.
They will be forced to move, either by being flooded out or by a rational State planning process. And not in some “gradual” way in the distant future – like maybe next week (and this data do not address flooding from hurricanes, storm surge, and extreme storms):
the mid-Atlantic region is expected to see as many as 15 high-tide flooding days during that period, a 350% increase over 2000. The mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts are due to be hit by the highest number of floods of any region, NOAA said in its Annual High Tide Flooding Outlook for 2023.
But where will the displaced coastal homeowners go? Will there be adequate housing and infrastructure to accommodate them? How will all this disruption and transition be funded?
Climate Chaos or planning. That’s the choice.
But never mind any of that! DEP and State planning and regulation are invisible.
Hurdle again used the high tide flooding story to shift the focus of responsibility to local government’s land us planning, with no mention of DEP’s responsibility under State coastal CAFRA and federal coastal zone management laws – or the State’s responsibility to manage coastal hazards under the NJ State Hazard Mitigation Plan: (emphasis mine)
Shope said communities should become familiar with forecasts for sea-level rise when making their land-use and planning decisions. . …
At the end of the day, our coastal towns will need to deal with more high-tide flooding, so preparing emergency response plans and other planning practices that take into account more frequent flooding will help improve coastal community resiliency,” he said
The Murphy DEP also has a Climate Change Resilience Strategy and a Coastal Ecological Restoration and Adaptation Plan.
Those strategies and plans are woefully inadequate – an analysis of all that is beyond the scope of today’s short post, but maybe some intrepid journalist out there will read and report on them (and the toothless N Hazard Mitigation Plan).
(Ironically, the Christie DEP 2016 federal Coastal Zone Management Plan put the issues more sharply in focus:
Even worse than that, Hurdle used the story to undermine and delay the need for planning for “Strategic Retreat” and to do so right now:
Shope said the longer-term solution of retreating to higher ground is very unpopular along the coast because people don’t want to give up their beach houses and because of the economic and social damage that would result from communities gradually moving inland. …
“Retreat is not seen as a common adaptation strategy being implemented today because of the economic impacts and the high potential for a community to dissolve as its members move,” he said. “However, we will likely see that balance shift moving forward and, in many cases, the decision of retreat will be forced on coastal communities by the rising tide.”
The future is now, folks. Adapt or die. Climate chaos or rational State planning and regulation.
Finally, Hurdle quotes longtime shore environmental group head Tim Dillingham of ALS, and he does so in a way that validates my criticisms about how the receipt of DEP grants tends to co-opt honest and aggressive advocacy to hold DEP accountable.
I sent Hurdle another note urging him to do better:
Jon – you gave DEP a pass again in today’s story.
DEP plans for and regulates natural resources and coastal land use under State law CAFRA – perhaps you need to read the law and DEP CAFRA regulations, see:
https://dep.nj.gov/wlm/lrp/coastal-zone/
DEP also has similar responsibilities under federal Coastal Zone Management Act, including a Strategic Plan, read
https://www.state.nj.us/dep/cmp/
Tim Dillingham knows all this, so why doesn’t he criticize DEP or even mention this? He takes lots of DEP money.
Wolfe