. >> reporter: the people pilkey contends benefit most of beach front property owners, ignorant, he sayse realities of erosion and the sea. >> it is madness to build buildings up to an eroding shoreline doesn't make sense. >> reporter: it has meant lots of dollars and cents for contractors. >> you know the expression, throwing good money after bad? this may be a perfect example. >> reporter: $1.5 billion plus over the past 20 years to dredge and relocate sand from the ocean floor. >> by placing sand out there provides a false sense of security and also provides a sense of entitlement to property owners who think the federal government should come in and put sand on the beach periodically. >> reporter: the federal government is spending as much as $8.5 million to shore up this beach and several others here in north carolina, but unless something changes the sand will wash away in just a few years, possibly followed by yet another dumping of taxpayer money. coastal officials and lobbyist pushing for more government money $450 million in the next federal budget, about nine times what the pr