Another bad year for coastal storm risk management (aka shore protection) as far as President’s budgets go. The chart below is my listing of everything I could fine in the budget for FY19 released by President Trump moments ago. There are $0 entries wherever I assumed that a study funded by the President last year would be continued this year. That includes not one cent of funding for any of the previously-funded post-Sandy focus area studies. Not one cent for the so-called Continuing Authorities Programs for beneficial use of sand or small shoreline protection projects.
Remember, we are still awaiting the FY18 Corps Work Plan and what I am reporting on is the FY19 president’s budget. The overall Corps budget proposed for FY19 is $4.8 billion – 20% less than Congress enacted in FY2017. Congress will finally act on an FY2018 budget in late March. But to see not one renourishment scheduled and the aforementioned resilience studies not funded is at best disappointing. Other than the Coastal Texas Study, the two other projects funded have strong environmental components.
[If I missed an item that should be listed, please let me know!]
You can find the full President’s earmarks for the Corps here
President’s Earmarks for Coastal Corps Projects (except navigation)
| Name of Project | State | Investigations | Construction | Operations & Maint |
| Assateague (1) | MD | $600,000 | ||
| Raritan River Basin | NJ | $5,000,000 | ||
| NY-NJ Harbor and Tributaries | $0 | |||
| Nassau County Back Bays | $0 | |||
| Rhode Island Coastline | $0 | |||
| Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Study, TX | $2,675,000 | |||
| Jefferson County Shore Protection | $0 | |||
| City of Norfolk | $0 | |||
| National Programs | ||||
| Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material (Sec. 204) | $0 | |||
| Mitigation of Shore Damages (Sec. 111) | $0 | |||
| Small Shore Protection Projects (Sec. 103) | $0 | |||
| Regional Sediment Management Research Program | $3,500,000 | |||
| Coastal Ocean Data System/Coastal Data Info Program | $2,500,000 | |||
| Coastal Field Data Collection | $1,000,000 | |||
| Coastal Inlet Research Program | $2,700,000 | |||
| National Coastal Mapping Program | $6,300,000 | |||
| National Shoreline Management Study | $400,000 | |||
| Planning Assistance to States | $5,000,000 | |||
| Additional Funding for Shore Protection (added by Congress) | ||||
| TOTAL BY CATEGORY | $9,075,000 | $5,600,000 | $15,000,000 | |
| TOTAL OF ALL CATEGORIES | $29,675,000 |
