After the beach disappeared and as millions of tax dollars are spent protecting Route 1 from the ocean at the northern foot of the Indian River Inlet Bridge, Delawareans are left wondering why steps to remedy the situation weren’t taken sooner.
Representatives of the agencies responsible, including the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state and federal government, have so far provided Delaware Online/The News Journal with boilerplate answers to that question.
The federal Water Resources and Development Act of 2022, which was signed in December 2022, authorized beach replenishment at the inlet. Determining what needed to happen after that to get the beach replenished as soon as possible has been challenging. Answers have come in dribs and drabs via email and by approaching officials at public events.
One such answer was obtained last week at a press conference held by Sen. Tom Carper's office from the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's director of infrastructure, John Kane.
After the Water Resources and Development Act was signed, responsibility fell to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Kane said.
“They should have reached out to the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) to say, 'We want this budgeted,'” Kane said, something they could have done as early as January 2023.
The Corps didn’t receive the first request until May 2024.
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A lack of answers
What the department did do in January 2023 was “inquire” to the Corps “about potential funding,” department spokesperson Nikki Lavoie said, but the Corps was “awaiting guidance” on the Water Resources and Development Act.
Corps spokesman Stephen Rochette confirmed there were “discussions about the possibility of a project.”
“When Congress passes WRDA, there’s typically ‘implementation guidance’ that details how various provisions are to be implemented,” Rochette said, when asked what guidance his agency was awaiting.
Lavoie said there was a “lack of clear guidance and funding,” but the department began planning for a 2025 replenishment project at the inlet anyway. She did not say why they chose 2025.
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The situation at the inlet became an emergency when the ocean breached the dune and spilled onto Route 1 – a road absolutely critical to both tourism and evacuations – in March of this year. The department reached out to the Corps about funding again in May, but their request was denied, Lavoie said.
When the dune breached again in August, the department again reached out to the Corps, Lavoie said, but “the USACE was still indicating that funds would only be available in the next fiscal year.” In the same email, Lavoie later said that "funding was finally considered and supported" in August.
When asked via email if Lavoie's claims were true, Rochette did not answer the question.
Regardless, in August, Sens. Russ Huxtable, D-Lewes, and Gerald Hocker, R-Bethany Beach, and Rep. Ron Gray, R-Selbyville, among others, scrambled to obtain $15 million in state funding for immediate replenishment to prevent the water from destroying the road. The project, set to begin in late November, was announced in September after the emergency funding was granted by the state.
Meanwhile, a representative of Carper’s office said the first time they were asked to help with funding was Aug. 17, via a letter from Gov. John Carney. A month later, Carper’s office announced $10 million in federal money to implement a long-term plan at the inlet.
After more than a month of asking various agencies what could have been done to prevent the situation at the inlet, none of them have answered what would've happened if the department had requested funding in January 2023, though Rochette did say on Oct. 3 that it typically takes 18 months for money to be appropriated after it's requested. He didn't say whether that means dredging could have started sooner, nor did he immediately answer the phone or respond to another email.
Department Secretary Shawn Garvin didn't respond to emails about this story. When asked at a Sept. 14 public information session why his agency didn't request funding sooner, Garvin said the Water Resources Development Act implies Congress will simply appropriate the money without a request, contrary to the claims of all other sources.
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Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: DNREC should have requested funding for inlet beach repairs over a year sooner, feds say
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