For Immediate Release

Contact: Paul Ordal

March 1, 2007 (202) 775-1796

Administration’s Budget Proposal is No Day at the Beach: ASBPA Releases Study Highlighting Lack of Funding

Washington, DC – No matter if it’s your health, your car, or the environment every American shares, the rule is simple – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The current Administration’s budget proposal neither prevents nor cures our nation’s eroding beaches.

A study of the most critical beach erosion needs in the U.S. shows the Administration's proposed budget doesn't even cover a fourth of the needs. The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) surveyed communities throughout the nation and found over 100 projects in need of federal funding. Each of these is already an authorized federal study or beach replenishment project. Of the over $270 million in funding ASBPA identified as needed for Fiscal 2008, 95% is to place sand on eroded beaches. The remainder is for studies of new areas of beach erosion.

"Shoreline erosion is a critical problem in this country," said Mayor Harry Simmons, President of the ASBPA. We have seen in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf states what happens when severe storms strike eroded coasts.

“Paying for the clean-up and the build-back costs far more than taking effective measures to mitigate and prevent damage. Cost-sharing with states and local governments to repair critically eroded coastline is a good investment of federal money. Even without severe hurricanes, the Federal government's own data shows that the nation gets about $5 in benefits for every $1 it spends on repairing coastal erosion.

“Any federal program that can cost so little and return so much deserves to get more support than this Administration has proposed,” Simmons concluded.

The ASBPA list of projects and studies that need funds and the amounts they need is available HERE in PDF format. If you have trouble opening these files, please email beaches@asbpa.org For more information about ASBPA's government affairs agenda, contact Paul Ordal or Howard Marlowe at 202-775-1796.