Army Corps passes over Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, for renourishment projects

North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach will not get any of the federal construction funding approved by Congress in December for beach renourishment projects.

Officials are now looking for other sources of funding that could be available through the Army Corps of Engineers to replace tons of sand swept away by last year’s storms.

The last resort, concedes U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, is that federal money won’t be available until the next fiscal year, which would likely go toward funding the entire Grand Strand renourishment project scheduled for 2018.

“We are continuing to talk to the Army Corps of Engineers,” Rice said. “There is a small amount of money left in emergency funding.”

Rice was key in securing additional money in the Army Corps’ national budget for shore protection, of which $16 million was awarded by the agency headquarters in Washington to South Carolina.

The corps determined that all of that money will be spent along Surfside Beach, Garden City Beach and a small portion of Georgetown County, which lost 332,000 cubic yards of sand during the October storms and a total of 1.7 million cubic yards of sand since the last renourishment project in 2008.

In addition to the federal funding, the project will require $8 million from state and local funding, said Justin Powell, assistant administrator for Horry County.

North Myrtle Beach was in line for the money, citing the need to replace 1.7 million cubic yards at an estimated cost of $26 million — $16 million of which would come from the corps and the remainder from local and state funds, said Pat Dowling, spokesman for North Myrtle Beach. That area reported a loss of more than 240,000 cubic yards of sand from the October storms.

The City of Myrtle Beach was also up for the funding, having lost more than 117,000 cubic yards of sand in last year’s storms, and more than 900,000 cubic yards since the last renourishment project in 2008. The corps estimated the cost for that project at $9 to $10 million in federal funds, plus $5 to $6 million in state and local money.

“There is still a possibility for emergency funding for North Myrtle Beach and Garden City, in addition to the construction funding,” Powell said.

Glenn Jeffries, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers in the Charleston district office said the decision to direct all of the funding to beaches along the south end of the county was because of the risk to infrastructure including homes, roads and utilities.

“North Myrtle Beach and Garden City had similar cost-benefit ratios, so the decision was based on the infrastructure (needs) behind the beach,” Jeffries said. “That was the one with the greatest need.”

Army Corps officials are already in the design phase to begin work on the south end, a contract is expected to be awarded by September, and work completed in four to six months, Jeffries said.

Of more than $43 million appropriated by Congress for beach renourishment projects, $23 million was allocated to New Jersey, $2.4 million to Indiana, $1.5 million to California, $1 million to Florida, and $16 million to South Carolina, according to the Army Corps’ civil works construction plan for 2016.

Gov. Nikki Haley included $40 million in her budget request for the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism to spend on emergency beach work to repair erosion caused by last year’s storms, but the funding has yet to be approved by the state legislature.

Powell said the south end beach work needs about $4 million in funding from the state, and another $4 million will come from Horry County, Surfside Beach and Georgetown County.

“I wish we had gotten (all) the necessary funding, but I’m happy we got what we did and I’ll continue working to make sure the north part of the strand is taken care of as well,” Rice said.

In North Myrtle Beach, Cherry Grove suffered a double whammy from Tropical Storm Ana and the offshore passing of Hurricane Joaquin in 2015. During high tide, the beach is under water to the dune line in many areas.

“It’s not threatening structures, but it’s still being impacted, and it will definitely have an impact on tourism,” Dowling said. “ People like to set up umbrellas, and if they’re having trouble finding a beach at high tide, they might move down the beach or move elsewhere. That’s part of why it’s critical to our tourism industry.”

“We’re not going to cry over spilled milk, we’re going to continue to look for emergency funding,” Dowling said. “If we can’t find emergency funding between now and then, we’ll have to wait until 2018, which leaves us pretty exposed, particularly in the Cherry Grove area.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Army Corps passes over Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, for renourishment projects."