After huge ponds form, Margate wants court to stop dune project
Beachgoers cross over one of numerous large pools of water that have formed on the beach in Margate N.J. due to heavy rains, Monday July 31, 2017. The water is blocked from draining into the ocean by new sand dunes being built as part of a storm protection program that Margate residents vigorously fought, claiming that the dunes would cause exactly the type of standing water that has occurred. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Officials in a Jersey Shore city are renewing a court battle against protective dunes.
Margate officials voted Wednesday to seek a court injunction to stop a joint state and federal dune building project that led to expansive ponds of standing water forming on its beaches last week, WPVI reports.
The city agreed to end a protracted legal battle against the project last year. Officials in the community located just south of Atlantic City had argued that the wooden bulkhead along the beach was sufficient and that the real flooding culprit was the bay.
Some homeowners had filed their own lawsuit against the project in federal court. In late December 2016, they hired civil engineer Chuck Dutill, who testified in court that the project would create a dangerous pond between the dunes and the bulkhead roughly 100 feet wide and stretching the length of the town.
At the time, federal and state environmental regulators called those claims exaggerations, but it’s exactly what happened last week after heavy rainfall.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday started pumping the water over the dunes as a short-term fix.
—————————————————————-
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.
