McIntyre’s Record Doesn’t Match his Rhetoric and What Really Needs to Happen

• McIntyre has secured  Zero Real Funding for Beach Restoration and Coastal Conservation For Fiscal Year 2011
• From Fiscal Year 1995 through Fiscal Year 2006, Illinois (of all places) has received more money for storm protection than North Carolina
• Projects are not being funded nor built as designed due to lack of funding which increases risks to our coast
• Only  ONE long-term storm protection project has been built since McIntyre was elected
• As your Next Congressman, Pantano Will Fight for The Solutions Necessary to Fund Real Coastal Conservation

Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for coming out today. I want to talk to you today about an issue that is near and dear to my heart – our 83 miles of oceanfront here in District 7.  The issue of long-term, strategic management of our barrier island beaches and inlets is crucial to the economic vitality and the quality of life.  Our beaches, inlets, and waterways are the chief reason that many of us choose to live, work, and play in this great part of our nation.

Congressman McIntyre claims to be a champion for our beaches. However, as in many other areas, when you take a closer look at the Congressman’s record, the results don’t match the claims.  In fact, the numbers raise serious doubts about his effectiveness in securing funding for coastal conservation and beach renourishment. Unbelievably, during the first 10 years Congressman McIntyre was in office, North Carolina and its 326 miles of oceanfront shoreline was not in the lead for federal funding.  As a matter of fact, three of the top funded states for federal beach restoration monies during the first decade of McIntyre’s tenure – New Jersey, New York, and Illinois – received significantly more money for beach restoration money than North Carolina did.  That’s right – I said Illinois.  WOW, but we’ll get back to that later.

On July 19th of this year, Congressman McIntyre announced that he had secured $22.5 million for beach restoration and coastal conservation for Southeastern North Carolina.  But that was just appropriations approved by a committee.  The House of Representatives adjourned a little over a week ago without approving a budget and without the full House voting on the Energy and Water appropriations budget. Therefore, the funding coming out of subcommittee that McIntyre referenced in his announcement has NOT been secured by the full House, the Senate, or the President.  And since Congress has adjourned until after the elections, maybe Congressman McIntyre should release another statement telling the truth: “This fiscal year, I (Mike McIntyre) secured nothing for the coastal communities in the 7th District.”  And even looking at the $22.5 million approved by in subcommittee, only 1.45 million of that money was approved to be spent on beach-fill related projects, less than 7% of the total number.  But, again, remember that these appropriations were not approved by the full House and, therefore, were NOT secured for the District.

Congressman McIntyre touts that he is a friend of the coast and has been responsible for all of the District’s federal beach restoration monies, but he is really riding the coattails of projects authorized and constructed before he took office, way back in 1996.  The ONLY long-term US Army Corps of Engineers storm protection project to be initially constructed and maintained while McIntyre has been our Congressman is the project at Ocean Isle Beach.  

I mentioned Ocean Isle Beach being the only storm protection to be initially constructed during the past 14 years.  Yes, there was a one-time only turtle habitat restoration project at Oak Island in 2001, but that was not a long-term solution to protect against coastal hazards.  It was a one-time project that likely will not be completed again.  While the towns of Holden Beach, Oak Island, Caswell Beach, Bald Head Island, and Topsail Beach have also received sand on their beaches during McIntyre’s tenure  these projects have been related to dredge material disposal from inlet navigation dredging and channel realignment projects. Disposal of dredged material isn’t long-term storm protection.

What the people need to realize is that the numbers for coastal protection funding just don’t add up.  A closer look is alarming and shows that Congressman McIntyre is not acquiring the necessary funds to build and maintain coastal conservation projects at required levels. During the last two fiscal years (2009 and 2010) the 7th District has received only 37% of its total beach funding need identified by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  In fiscal year 2009, it was only 45%.   

Not ensuring the appropriate amount of funding to build coastal engineering projects to their design standards exposes residents to increased levels of risk. This is analogous to having a levee system that requires $100 million to be built as designed, but Congress only approves funding for $60 million. What do you get when you only spend a portion of the required funding to provide protection to residents, property, and infrastructure? You don’t get full protection and, potentially, you get a catastrophe when the coastal hazards predicted in the design cannot be mitigated because the project cannot perform as initially designed because it was not funded as designed and therefore not built as designed.
As I mentioned earlier in my statement, it is an eye-opening exercise when you compare federal beach restoration appropriations in North Carolina to other states, keeping in mind that the 7th district only accounts for about one fourth of the State’s total oceanfront shoreline.

Let’s look at North Carolina compared to New Jersey, New York, and Illinois – three of the top-funded states overall during the past 15 years.   New Jersey, New York, and Illinois combined have 320 miles of shoreline, 63 of which is along a lake.  From Fiscal Year 1995 through Fiscal Year 2006, an 11 year period that includes Congressman McIntyre’s first decade in office, North Carolina received $55.8 million in coastal funding.  New Jersey, New York and Illinois?  Combined, these three top-funded states received $668 million.  So, between FY 1995 and FY 2006 North Carolina received 8% of the funding allocated to New Jersey, New York and Illinois despite the fact that North Carolina has more shoreline than the other three states combined and that North Carolina is the only one at high risk for hurricanes.

Illinois, alone, received $201 million for its 63 miles of lakefront shoreline, which the last time I checked has never been hit by a hurricane.  That’s almost four times as much as North Carolina received!  And the 7th District alone has 20 more miles of shoreline than Illinois. Let’s compare it state by state as the chart to my right does:

From FY 1995 to 2006, New Jersey received approximately $285 million in federal monies for beach restoration projects for its 130 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline which translates to approximately $2.2 million per mile of shoreline or about $200,000 per mile per yer.
From FY 1995 to 2006, New York received approximately $235 million in federal monies for beach restoration projects for its 127 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline which translates to approximately $1.9 million per mile of shoreline or about $168,000 per mile per year.
As noted above, from FY 1995 to FY 2006, Illinois received approximately $201 million in federal monies for beach restoration projects for its 63 miles of total shoreline all of which is along Lake Michigan which translates to approximately $3.2 million per mile of lakefront shoreline or about $290,000 per mile per year.

From FY 1995 to FY 2006, North Carolina received approximately $55 million in federal monies for beach restoration projects for its 326 miles of oceanfront shoreline which translates to approximately $169,000 per mile of shoreline or about $15,000 per mile of shoreline per year.

How do we solve this problem?

1. We need to get our priorities in order. Recently, Congressman McIntyre bragged about securing $16 million for high speed internet for Southern Columbus County, $4,000 per household for internet.  Don’t you think that $16 million dollars could have been better spent and had a much more profound impact on the future of the economy in our region if it was set aside for beach restoration projects?
2. We need a Congressman who will ensure that North Carolina and specifically the 7th Congressional District is getting its fair share when money is being set aside for beach restoration. We don’t need a Congressman who will remain silent while Illinois, of all places, is receiving more money than we are for beach restoration.
3. We need to move away from funding beach restoration and coastal conservation by earmarks on a year to year basis.  We must secure a steady revenue stream for funding these projects that will allow local communities to be able to develop and implement long-range plans for beach restoration with some confidence that these plans will be funded.  Gone should be the day of storm protection appropriations going to the districts who happen to be a member of the majority party in Congress.  We need to usher in a rigorous set of objective cost-benefit studies to prioritize and fund national beach fill projects and make sure the projects that are deemed a priority are full funded so that they can be built as designed.  We must amend the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 to place funding prioritization in the hands of NOAA’s Coastal Zone Management Program, which works in partnership with the coast states and coastal communities.  It’s past time to allow the states to be involved in the process of prioritizing beach fill projects and funding levels, and to move away from the federal government determining which projects to approve when on a year-by-year basis. In conjunction with securing a permanent revenue stream this will allow coastal communities to make smart, long-term, strategic plans on coastal conservation with some confidence.
4. No matter what solutions are put in place, in the future there may be times of crisis like we are in now where federal funding falls short.  Right now, when the federal government experiences a budget shortfall and cannot fully fund or cannot continue to fund a beach fill, storm protection, project local and state governments are not allowed to step up and provide funding to cover those shortfalls even when they have the funds to do so.

This is happening right now.  New Hanover County has over 30 million dollars set aside in a beach renourishment fund that was set aside over 30 years ago.  The purpose of this fund was to make up for federal shortfalls.  However, federal law prohibits states and local communities from being able to do this.  Currently, for approved US Army Corps of Engineer storm protection projects the federal government funds 65% and state and local governments fund the remaining 35%.  If something happens and the federal government cannot their 65% state and local governments are legally prohibited from contributing more than their original 35% share.  That is ridiculous and it goes against all common senses.  As your next Congressman, one of the first pieces of legislation that I will introduce will be a bill to change the US Army Corps of Engineers Contributing authority to give states and local communities the option to make up for shortfalls in federal funding if they have the ability to do so.

The federal government should pay its fair share for beach fill (storm protection) projects, however if there is a federal budget crisis our beach communities should not be punished by prohibiting local and state governments from stepping up to ensure 100% funding for these projects when they have the money already set aside to do so.

It’s time for the federal government to completely redo how it thinks about coastal protection and conservation, which is more than beach nourishment – it includes relocation of critical infrastructure, increasing public access, and restoring and protecting critical fish and bird habitats.  The federal government must also change its near-sighted approach to coastal management via year-to-year earmark.  How can anyone be expected to create long-term strategies to preserve the coast where we live, work, and play when there is no certainty on what projects will get funded and how much funding will be approved from one year to the next.  It’s no surprise that the current Congress and overall federal government is doing a poor job managing our coast in District 7, so it is time for them to hand over the reins of coastal management to the states and local communities who know best how to manage this priceless resource.  

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