NOURISHMENT FOR BEACHES OR BUREAUCRATS?

Unsustainable barrier island development practices are encouraged by poorly conceived local, state, and federal policies. The significant encouragement that the United States government provides for such development includes subsidized flood insurance policies, beach-building funds, road construction money, bridge construction costs and financing for additional infrastructure. Such subsidies, contained in forty federal programs, tap the taxpayer-funded Treasury, and encourage sprawl and unwise development on our coastal barrier islands. This paper focuses on policies surrounding so-called beach nourishment. The dictionary defines the term "nourishment" as follows:

1.To provide with food or other substances necessary for life and growth; feed. 2.To foster the development of; promote. 3.To keep alive; maintain: nourish a hope.

One could argue, however, that the process does the exact opposite, instead, starving taxpayers of their hard-earned dollars that could be better spent on education or health care, stifling the development of ecological systems, and risking the lives of individuals who are encouraged by federal dollars to plant their families on shifting sands.

There is nourishment involved: coastal politicians' bank accounts grow due to the work of lobby groups, local businesses' bottom lines are fostered by federally subsidized sand, and the Army Corps of Engineers is kept alive, even in this post-war era.

In 1997 alone, the federal taxpayer shoveled over $180 million to pump sand. The Water Resources Development Act of 1999 authorized $300 million in sand pumping and other coastal subsidies, with an additional long-term maintenance cost of $330 million. At the same time, taxpayers are continuing to pay for the maintenance of every single such project that was begun in the past half-century. Recent project authorizations, trends in financing these projects and future public policy directions will be discussed.