Individuals with resources can take matters into their own hands.
They can, but it is a short-term fix. I have seen dredging done in front of individual properties, but it will not work for very long. That money would probably be better spent trying to organize at least a regional homeowners association. There is nothing that says a homeowners association cannot become a sponsor of a small federal beach nourishment program. The law certainly permits that. It can also create its own taxing district. But you have to make sure it is done in a well-engineered fashion. One of the dangers of a small group of folks acting is that they will do something that will adversely affect property owners adjacent to them. Obviously that is not their intention, but that could be one of the results.
The best thing people with resources can do is leverage their contacts. In any project, it is important to make sure that the business community—real estate agents, hoteliers, restaurateurs—gets involved, along with property owners and government officials. This is a great opportunity for people to use their resources. And many people who have financial resources also have political contacts. They need to make use of those contacts and speak up. Government responds to those who speak out and speak out effectively.This federal program primarily benefits areas in Florida and the East Coast.
New Jersey and Florida took the lead in the federal program. Both states have dedicated significant moneys of their own to supply the non-federal funds, which they get from taking a portion of the funds derived from a tax on the transfer of property. Beach nourishment does not succeed in the long term. It is important for people to know that beach nourishment works. The most obvious example is Miami Beach. Not only was the beach devastated by erosion in the 1960s and early 1970s, but the community had slipped into clear economic decline. The beach nourishment program there brought the community back, and created an economic boom that is still going on. It is a project that has lasted, and created increased property values. Every time we go through a beach nourishment project, property values increase. And they increase not just for people who have the first row along the beach, they increase for the whole community by an equal proportion. Without beach nourishment, you will lose both the resources and the money it generates, and you will expose the property to severe damage.
Years of hard and expensive work can be undone by a single storm. Beaches are definitely damaged by hurricanes. But what we view as being lost from a storm is not necessarily lost at all. A good portion of the sand that was driven out to sea will come back. In the recent hurricanes in Florida, we estimate that 65 percent of the sand that was lost will return to the beach in one year. Does that mean the other 35 percent is lost? We do not have the data yet. But a large part of what appears to be lost comes back naturally. The rest is going to have to be replaced.
We should regard investment in beach nourishment as similar to the maintenance investments we make in any kind of infrastructure. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars to repave roads; in this case it is an equally worthwhile investment. On average, for every dollar we spend to put sand on the beach, the federal government gets at least $5 back in storm-loss-reduction benefits. Ultimately, it is about prevention. I guarantee when they do the studies on these hurricanes in Florida, you will find that those communities that did beach nourishment will have fared better than those that did not.
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