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Mid Atlantic
New Jersey
(+) In November 2006 NJDEP proposed new beach access rules that would repeal the existing Public access to the waterfront rule and replace it with a new Public trust rights rule. The proposed new rule strengthens the Department's existing public access requirements and sets forth specific requirements for Shore Protection Program and Green Acres funding.
(+) New Jersey's Coast 2005 initiative, announced in April 2005, is a comprehensive plan to protect the integrity and economic viability of New Jersey's valuable coastal resources. Under the initiative, the state will strengthen standards and regulations that protect the coastal ecosystem, enhance public access opportunities, expand protection for coastal wildlife and wildlife habitats, and support tourist, seafood and maritime industries.
(+) New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection opened a new laboratory for the Bureau of Marine Water Monitoring in May 2006. The facility will use advanced methods to identify pollution in marine waters.
(+) Shoreline structure locations have been mapped and are available online.
(+) Recognizing the "increasing demand for our State's beach and the dynamic nature of the public trust doctrine," the New Jersey Supreme Court found that the public must be given both access to and use of privately owned dry sand areas. In a subsequent ruling in July 2005 the Supreme Court affirmed an Appeals Court ruling requiring private beach owners to allow reasonably priced public beach access.
(+)The NJBPN's 20-year report contains each volume calculation & shoreline position for 100 sites for every year from 1986 through 2006.
(0) New Jersey accounts for just 3 percent of the U.S. coastline but is by far the biggest recipient of beach protection dollars, with $180 million in federal spending over a period of eight years. Out of 93 miles of developed shoreline, New Jersey has beach-widening projects in place along 51 miles.
(-) On January 24, 2008, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa Jackson (now head of USEPA) rescinded an Administrative Order that she issued on January 2, 2007 that protected streams by mandating a 300-foot buffer. The DEP reversal makes it much easier for developers to reduce the buffer to 150 feet, requiring just a local government "equivalence" finding.
(-) 43% of New Jersey’s developed shoreline is armored. At least 392 groins and jetties are located along New Jersey’s open ocean coastline.
(-) Over the past decade, the State Department of Environmental Protection has approved 95% of the development applications it has received in its coastal review zone. During that same period, the Army Corps of Engineers has denied only six of the nearly 3,000 applications it received for dock construction and modifications.
Delaware
(+) In 2008 more than 450 people participated in Delaware’s annual beach grass planting event and planted about 95,000 stems of grass along three miles of coastline between Fenwick Island State Park and Lewes Beach.
(+) A newly updated and expanded edition of Striking a Balance: A Guide to Coastal Dynamics and Beach Management in Delaware, took top honors in the educational brochures category of the 2005 Communicator Awards.
(+) There is one public access site for about every 1.5 miles of shoreline.
(0) 99% of Delaware’s ocean beaches are experiencing coastal erosion.
(0) From 1988 to 1994, eighteen fill projects placed an annual average of 329,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach. The average annual cost was $1.8 million.
(-) Since 1990, about 84,000 new homes have been built statewide and about 100,000 more homes are planned, severely taxing this small state's ecosystems and infrastructure.
(-) Substantial federal budget cuts to NOAA have resulted in a cut of approximately $400,000 in Delaware's Coastal Management Program and reductions in the amount of dollars they are able to pass through to other organizations to do coastal management work.
Maryland
(+) Maryland’s Comprehensive Coastal Inventory Program (Chesapeake Bay only) has mapped shoreline features, including shoreline structures, coastal access, natural features, bank height and condition characterization. There is now a full statewide inventory of shoreline structures along Chesapeake Bay.
(+) Maryland has upgraded the Chestertown Wastewater Treatment Plant. The upgrade is anticipated to dramatically reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients that the treatment plant dumps into the Chester River which flows directly to the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to the Chestertown Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade, additional plant upgrades are scheduled to take place at all 66 major treatment plants in the state.
(+) An online map server provides average erosion rates for Maryland’s shorelines.
(+) There is on average better than one public access site for every mile of shoreline.
(+) With 32 miles of open ocean coastline, 20 miles of it in the Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland's open ocean coastline is approximately two-thirds publicly owned.
(+) A federal report on the Chesapeake Bay program indicates that between 1995 and 2004 Maryland spent almost 2-1/2 times what neighboring Virginia did on Chesapeake Bay environmental programs.
(0) Due to land subsidence, sea level is rising at a rate of approximately one foot per century. The rate may rise to as much as 2 to 3 feet by 2100 as a result of greenhouse warming.
(0) At Ocean City, 2.7 million cubic meters of sand and was added between 1990 and 1998. It has been estimated that at least an additional half million cubic meters of sand will be needed every four years for the next 50 years.
(0) Hurricane Isabel caused an estimated $273 million in damage to coastal property in 2003. Most of this damage was to private property, since a reported 96% of Maryland's coastal land (along both inland waterways and the open ocean) is privately owned.
(0) 31% of Maryland's open ocean coastline is experiencing coastal erosion. The State is currently losing approximately 260 acres of land each year to shore erosion.
(-) Although Maryland has good information on a number of beach health indicators, including beach access, beach erosion and shoreline structues, the information is primarily for Chesapeake Bay and tends to neglect the open ocean coast.
(-) 16.5% of Maryland’s Coastal Bays are armored.
(-) Counties are required to monitor water quality only at beaches that charge entrance fees, and the decision to close or post advisories is discretionary.
(-) Between 1996 and 2005, the Maryland Department of the Environment issued permits allowing more than 200 miles of shoreline hardening, almost entirely along the shoreline of inland bays and rivers. There were 36 miles of hardening in Anne Arundel County and about 125 miles is hardened in Baltimore County.
(-) Along Maryland’s shoreline horseshoe crabs have become stuck in the crevices of riprap revetments. More than 20% of Maryland’s shoreline is armored, making it that much more difficult for horseshoe crabs to come ashore to spawn.
Virginia
(+) A $149 million state Water Quality Improvement Fund created to help local governments reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay remained intact after the funding was restored by the Legislature’s Committee of Conference in a budget approved March 2009 by the General Assembly. This is in contrast to the situation in states like New York and North Carolina where environmental funds have been raided to balance the budget.
(+) On Feb. 22, 2008, Governor Kaine signed legislation to help protect coastal resources by expanding the reach of the “Coastal Primary Sand Dunes and Beaches Act” from the original nine localities to the entire Virginia coastal zone. The result is added protection for approximately 1,300 estuarine beaches and dunes that encompass about 75 miles of shoreline along 24 additional counties and 14 cities.
(+) The Virginia Resources Authority and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality were recognized in late 2007 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for excellent work in the area of water quality protection with a Performance and Innovation in the SRF (Clean Water States Revolving Fund) Creating Environmental Success, or PISCES, award. The award was granted for Virginia's creation of a fund that will provide $250 million per year over five years aimed specifically at improving water quality in Virginia's portion of the Bay watershed. Recognition was also given to Virginia's efforts to provide low-interest loans to farmers so that they can implement best-management practices on their farms that will directly impact water quality.
(+) A proposed program to allow the use of treated wastewater for irrigation, industrial cooling, livestock quenching, dust control, fire protection, car washing, street cleaning and office toilet flushing was unanimously approved by the State Water Control Board in 2007.
(+) Governor Timothy Kaine announced in December 2006 that he would introduce legislation authorizing $250 million in bonds to upgrade sewage treatment plants throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The bonds will provide funds to share the costs with localities for installing technologies that will reduce nutrient pollution discharged into Virginia waters. The sewage treatment plant upgrades made possible by these funds will prevent an estimated four million pounds of nitrogen compounds from entering Virginia's rivers that flow into the Bay.
(+) Since 1991 the Coastal Program has helped to acquire and preserve over 1,800 acres of coastal lands, including wetlands, sand dune systems, lowland and upland riparian buffers, and other wildlife habitat areas. During the period from October 2005 through September 2006, 22 new public access sties were added in the coastal area.
(+) Environmentally sensitive site design, which can minimize land disturbance, preserve indigenous vegetation and minimize impervious surface and runoff, is the objective of Better Site Design guidance documents developed by Virginia's Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department.
(+) The Northampton County Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) and other SAMPs are tools used by the Virginia Coastal Program to protect significant coastal resources.
(+) The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) - Center for Coastal Resources Management, Wetlands Program maintains a comprehensive database of permitted structures and other shoreline projects.
(+) Virginia Beach has one access point every 450 feet of coastline.
(+) The brochure Shoreline Erosion Problems? Think Green helps ensure that nonstructural alternatives to shoreline erosion are considered and illustrates how using marsh grasses can secure property and benefit water quality and wildlife. A field version of the Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook was developed and over 4,000 copies have been distributed.
(0) The City of Virginia Beach placed 4 million cubic yards of sand between Rudee Inlet and 89th Street as part of the Beach Erosion Control and Hurricane Protection Project. The five-year plan will cost $120 million. The federal government will pick up 65% of the cost.
(-) Gov. Tim Kaine proposed in late 2007 to eliminate $400,000 of monitoring and assessment projects conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Geological Survey and Old Dominion University for Chesapeake Bay. The cuts contrast with increases in funding in Maryland, where legislators authorized $50 million to clean up pollution in the bay.
(-) The City of Virginia Beach scored an F (50 out of 100 points) on a scorecard from the Center for Watershed Protection for its efforts to protect water quality in 2006. In response, the city's Green Ribbon Committee recommended that the City Council adopt rules to reduce erosion and require the treatment of storm water. The committee recommended that the city reduce fees for building permits and stormwater work as an incentive for developers to use less asphalt on their projects.
(-) Virginia amended the Code of Virginia by adding a section 28.2-1408.1, relating to the standards for use of coastal protective structures. The act states that owners of homes in Sandbridge Beach shall not be prohibited from erecting and maintaining protective bulkheads or other equivalent structural improvements. It is possible that additional similar acts could be passed in Virginia to modify the current strict regulations regarding shoreline protection structures.
(-) Statewide, on average there is at best one public access site for every 5 miles of shoreline. Of the 66 additional public water access sites called for in the Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 2000, only 15 sites had been developed by 2004.
(-) Virginia ranks last among states in spending on the environment and conservation. A federal report on the Chesapeake Bay program indicates that between 1995 and 2004, Virginia spent only about 40 percent as much as Maryland on Chesapeake Bay environmental programs.
(-) Virginia issued permits to harden around 220 miles of its tidal shoreline between 1993 and 2004. On average, about 18.5 miles of new shoreline structures have been added to Virginia’s shoreline yearly since 2004.
(-) Virginia is the third-most-threatened state (behind Texas and Louisiana) for damage from rising sea levels.
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