We mentioned in an article in the Monday Inquirer that in raw, unadjusted dollars, about $545 million worth of sand has been pumped on New Jersey beaches, counting all federal, state and local money.
That's according to Andrew Coburn of Western Carolina University, where the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines appears to be about the only place keeping track these days.
Since the beach-fill operations began way back in 1936 and involved about 120 projects, adjusting the total for inflation presented quite a challenge.
Nevertheless, Coburn took a crack at it and came up with an adjusted total of $897.4 million for New Jersey.
That's near the top of the list nationally, but Florida is No. 1 at $2.1 billion, thanks in part to a tremendous boom in beach replenishment after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.