$10 million for East Chop Bluff restoration at risk

The restoration effort of a vulnerable coastline in Oak Bluffs may see additional setbacks with the threat that the federal government could cut funding for a more than $30 million project that still has a significant budget gap.

During the Oak Bluffs select board meeting on Tuesday, assistant town administrator Wendy Brough said a $10 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to restore East Chop Bluff may be at risk of being rescinded. 

The funding, which was announced in 2019 but wasn’t awarded until 2022 due to COVID-19 and other issues in the federal government, was from FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation program, replaced by the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program in 2020.

Brough said the town has been receiving mixed signals from FEMA, adding that the agency is dealing with a staffing shortage. “Nobody really knows what’s going on,” she told The Times. The town has also been in touch with state and congressional representatives for support. 

With this restoration effort, Oak Bluffs is hoping to protect 2,400 feet of coastline along East Chop Drive from erosion, expanding a 40,000-square-foot revetment to 77,650 square feet. The idea is to prevent the shoreline from advancing toward nearby residences. The town is also proposing a public walkway to the shoreline, which would be compliant with federal disability laws. The project will also feature a temporary pier. Although originally approved by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in 2018, funding snags and changes to the design to meet permitting standards have delayed the project. The restoration project was expected to start by the end of this year. 

Delays, with rising material costs and inflation, have increased the total project cost to $33.3 million, and the town is $16.39 million short. 

Brough said the town is trying to get clarity on the BRIC grant funding, and is looking into other possible funding options; the town also approached the state’s Federal Funds and Investment Office last month to request a matching grant to close the funding gap. 

According to a fact sheet Brough had during the meeting, the federal funding could be extended a final, third time after its deadline on June 1, 2026, and construction for the first phase would need to be completed within a year, or the project would lose the $10 million grant. A $3 million grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal program would be lost if the federal deadline is missed. 

Although the town will work to wrap up its permitting, it can’t begin bidding for construction contractors until funding becomes certain. Meanwhile, further delays could jeopardize the area. 

“The remaining funding for the project needs to be secured for the critical infrastructure project to proceed in any capacity,” the fact sheet reads. “The impact of losing this funding is severe: without stabilization, the East Chop Bluff will continue to erode, potentially leading to the permanent loss of East Chop Drive.” 

Oak Bluffs isn’t the only municipality tangled up in federal funding cuts. Earlier this month, Gosnold lost $75,000 in BRIC funding that was originally earmarked to explore protecting the freshwater supply of Cuttyhunk Island, where most of the town’s residents live.