A decade ago when I talked with local government officials and compared their comments to those of state officials, I concluded that Downe Township would not raise the funding that it needs to sustain the coming surge in water level rise. Costs were forecast at over $100 million for Fortescue and over $40 million for Money Island. I talked about a public/private partnership but that seemed to fall on deaf ears. In his 2019 book “The Drowning of Money Island”, author Andrew Lewis concludes that my vision of sustainability was overly optimistic.
This week Downe Township celebrated the funding achieved for a wastewater system to serve Fortescue and Gandy’s Beach. The cost is projected at $35 million. Some local working class residents are fearful that the funding will change their community. They are right. It will change. But I expect that both communities will be better able to adapt to that change than Money Island was a decade ago.