The government already spends significant funds on preventing or dealing with beach erosion. With large deficits, we can no longer afford the additional investment.

We are not talking about any huge expense. The annual spending on the federal beach nourishment program ranges anywhere from $100 million to a maximum of $130 million in a good year—and 2005 will not be a good year. That $130 million equals the cost of two federal highway interchanges, and it is a tiny fraction of the government’s total water resource investments. The Army Corps of Engineers alone spends $4.5 billion on flood control, ports, inland waterways, you name it. We get between 2 and 3 percent of that total.

NOBODY IS ever eager to pay higher taxes, but in every case I can think of, residents have been happy to come up with the money.

The European Community, in a given year, will spend $3.5 billion on its beaches. And we have more beaches than the European Community does. Furthermore, we are generating more money from our beaches than it is. The beach is the biggest attraction of the national tourism industry. In addition, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of the coastline, and the proportion is growing every day.

Cities and states should expect the federal government to pick up the entire cost of beach-improvement projects.

The process requires local action first. If a community is going to request assistance from Congress and a study is authorized, the Corps of Engineers will become involved. Costs are divided on a 50-50 basis between the Corps and the local government during the study phase, which takes several years. The government has to determine there is a federal interest in doing the project. It won’t get involved in something where there is no or inadequate public access. No resorts. There must be a real erosion problem, and there must be a threat to structures. When it begins construction, the placement of sand on the beach is contracted out to private dredging companies. For the initial nourishment of a beach, the federal government pays 65 percent; the non-federal entity funds 35 percent. For periodic renourishment, the costs are divided 50-50.

It is difficult to convince people there is a problem until it is too late.

Communities must realize that it takes a long time to start a beach nourishment project. From start to finish, it takes a minimum of eight years to get sand on the beach. We started working in this field in the early 1980s. One day somebody told me that Venice, Fla., a small city south of Sarasota, was having trouble getting funding for its beach project, and asked if I could help. We realized after a few months that there were other cities in Florida that needed assistance, and it grew from there. Venice finally got constructed in 1992, and now it is coming up for its first renourishment.

Many people do not ask for help until the problem is critical; very often they cannot wait eight years. One of our jobs is to come up with a solution that provides some short-term protection. We are working with Carteret County in North Carolina, near Morehead City. While we are doing the study, we are getting sand dredged from the Morehead City harbor up onto the beaches, so we will have enough sand there to hold for a period of time until the study is completed.

But itis important for people not to wait too long. When they see issues, they need to get their fellow property owners and businesspeople to raise the issues to a high level of importance in the local community. And they need to contact their member of Congress directly.