Will Castle Return his “Sand to Nowhere” Pork now?
So I read this article and think to myself do we as Delawareans really need to be wasting $25,000,000 federal tax dollars on sand when apparently the beaches naturally come and go? Who knew?
The strong winds during the nor’easter created bigger waves and pushed sand up toward Cape Henlopen.
Back in February our very own Mike Castle was out in Bethany applauding Delawares $25,000,000.00 worth of sand to Nowhere for a 200 ft stretch of beach
I’ve said this before that I’m not smart. ( I didn’t graduate from Regents) but I did the math and 25,000,000.00/200 = $125,000.00 per foot of sand. I guess a bigger question is where are we getting the sand from, but I digress?
anywhooo
Now I read that apparently, gasp, nature has it’s own way of replacing beach sand. But the real kicker is, and get this, apparently Mother Nature doesn’t charge for it either, the shit is Tax Free!….Thanks Mike, now go back to pissing off Jason please
Tags: Delaware, Mike Castle, Pork
Viti –
I changed the timestamp on mine cuz I have a call out to Castle’s office and I’m trying to give them a chance to reply.
I’ll put this one on top in at 10:30.
no problem, my bad
Where to start?
– Sand isn’t quantified into linear feet for unit pricing. It’s quantified into yards (as in cubic yards, as in volume). The beach is 200ft DEEP, not 200ft long. The beach actually stretches for about three miles. In addition to the beach refurbishment, they’re also creating a 100 ft wide, 16 foot tall protective dune. In all, they’ll be pumping in about 3.4 million yards of sand. So, we’re talking about $7.35/yard of sand, or 27 cents/cubic foot (if you like feet).
– Clapping your hands and believing that mother nature will replenish Delaware’s beaches might seem like a reasonable approach to someone up in New Castle, but it’s not helping the thousands of business owners (and their employees and their families) downstate who rely on the beaches to bring in tourists (and nearly $2 billion annually).
– I wouldn’t call money from the Army Corps of Engineers pork. This is what they do. They refurbish things.
– This was a no-brainer and a triumph for Delaware’s legislators. If your goal was to disparage Congressman Castle, you might want to rethink giving him all the credit for this.
explain to me why though a tax payer in Minnesota is paying for OUR beach replenishment?
Beaches are not meant to be permanent. Sometime in the Clinton era, the replenishment funding formula was changed so that the Feds would pay for about 30% and the states had to come up with the rest. But still — paying to replace something that is supposed to be geologically ephemeral is crazy.
And while I have no objection to the tourist industry, it seems to me that the businesspeople and property owners at the beach ought to live with the very real risk that the instability of beaches presents.
This is welfare for the rich. Without replenishment it is not as if there will not be a beach. There just won’t be a beach infront of a large number of rich peoples houses.
don’t forget the flood insurance the government ponies up too
This isn’t welfare, it’s economics. The Federal Government pays $17 million now and they get taxes on $2 billion spent annually by tourists at those beaches.
By the way,
“explain to me why though a tax payer in Minnesota is paying for OUR beach replenishment?”
Why are taxpayers in Delaware paying for the US Army Corps of Engineers to build multi-million dollar outdoor recreational parks in Minnesota?
This is how a federal government works.
Most of the Corps “recreational” areas are typically built as water supply structures or flood control structures. Both are designed with some buffer zones which the Corps makes some recreational improvements on for revenue generation, water quality protection (for the supply structures), and political considerations. But these lakes are built as critical infrastructure.
Importantly, the Corps lakes are permanent (mostly)structures. Unlike the east coast beaches that need to be refreshed due to storm destruction, bad coastal zone management, and the usual beach decay.
If the Corps could build an offshore structure that would permanently shelter the beaches from decay or destruction, that might be a decent use of taxpayer funds. But to continue to rebuild a thing that was always meant to come and go is just plain silly.
Making a $25 million investment in order to keep a $2 billion/year industry thriving is just plain silly?
re investment as in every year or other year.
which again isn’t a federal thing it is a state thing.
Jayson please deleate the stupid story- how is the point to be made blamming Castle when Biden and Carper helped with this too- Im glad Delaware got that money rather than some other state. Not to mention the millions for the Spinich farmers, peanut growers and the shrimp biz in the illegal war funding. How can we blame Castle when the cowards that should be on our side do the same thing? This story shows a lack of thought or little understanding of politics!
Hey Moron, woops I mean hank
Mike Castle is the Moron down there in Bethany promoting that he is the reason for the sand.
Do me a favor and read before you comment out your ass
Hey moron, you’re the one who originally posted the story saying that the beach was only going to be a 200ft stretch. So clearly, you had (have) no idea what you’re talking about.
I’d hardly say that replenishing a beach which protects adjacent infrastructure from storms and guards a $2 billion/year industry is a waste. But that’s me.
And it’s not something you do every year or every other year. More like every 30+ years.
Your $2 billion figure is bogus and based on the fact that turn of the century developers built where the dunes should be. The beach comes and goes. You want to overturn the laws of physics. Good luck with that.
The fact is the first three rows of houses have no business being where they are so when you say you want to “protect” an “industry” you should be saying that you want to “protect” your “investment” (…which is fine it is still a free country for now).
Just don’t use my tax money and claim that you are being some kind of humanitarian.
“The beach comes and goes. You want to overturn the laws of physics. Good luck with that.”
With that line of reasoning, why didn’t we just leave New Orleans underwater? Why bother rebuilding these artificial levies? We’ll just need to rebuild them again in 50 years.
“Your $2 billion figure is bogus”
Sorry about that. Apparently, it’s just $1.8 billion.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS/702220361/1006&theme=LEGHALL
George W. Bush has been trying to funnel money away from these beach replenishment projects (which began getting most of their funding under the Clinton Administration) since he took office. I never would have guessed that the writers of Delaware “Liberal” would be so willing put their unwaivering support behind Bush and his cronies.
Ya rubber-stampin bastards.
That one hurt.
Yes, I know. I should go away already.
But, Interesting overview of the state of beach replenishment from 1989 Note that: 1)the Corps is spending funds under the Bush I administration; 2) this article discusses beaches that have seen multiple replenishments since this article was written; and 3) Gov. Mike Castle was not much of a fan of beach replenishment back in the day.
New Orleans’ biggest problems by contrast is the disappearance of its coastal wetlands due to oil and gas drilling/pipeline activity AND multiple failures of the engineering, construction, and maintenance of the levees built. Those structures (unlike beaches) should have been more permanent if its engineers, inspectors and constructors had done their job. The Dutch, British and Italians