Two Orange County coastal cities for the first time have joined San Diego Countys efforts to restore sand to the regions shrinking beaches.
The San Diego Association of Governments completed two previous regional projects, in 2001 and 2012, that blanketed coastlines from Oceanside to Imperial Beach.
Discussions of a third and possibly larger project began a little more than a year ago. The San Diego County cities involved agreed to share the $200,000 needed to launch the initial feasibility studies.
San Clemente and later Dana Point city officials asked to join the project after seeing SANDAGs public request for bids from consultants, said Keith Greer, the agencys deputy director of regional planning.
It makes sense to us, Greer said Thursday. They are facing the same issues. It allows us to form a collaborative to seek funding.
So far, only the feasibility study now underway has been paid for. A draft copy of the study is expected in March, Greer said.
The feasibility study is the first of three phases for the project. A second phase, consisting of the engineering and environmental work, has not started, is unfunded and is likely to cost more than $3 million.
Construction and monitoring of the replenishment would be the third and final phase. Early last year that phase was estimated at $37 million, before more cities joined. Even if everything falls into place quickly and money is obtained, construction is still years away.
The addition of the two Orange County cities more than doubled the costs of the feasibility study, Greer said, and both city councils have agreed to pay their share.
The cost is higher for the new cities because no data was collected there from the previous replenishments. As a result, San Clementes share is $109,000 and Dana Point will pay $124,000 for their share of the study, he said.
Its the first time SANDAG has worked with outside agencies on a sand project, he said, although it has teamed up with other agencies before on issues such as regional transportation and habitat conservation plans.
Collaborating makes a lot of sense from a coastal planning perspective because the top (northernmost point) of the Oceanside littoral cell begins at the mouth of the San Juan Creek in Dana Point, said Leslea Meyerhoff, San Clementes coastal administrator.
A littoral cell is a self-contained region in which sand is circulated by the ocean tides and currents. The Oceanside cell includes all of San Clemente, Dana Point, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, part of the city of San Diego and terminates near the UCSD/Scripps pier.
We expect to see a lot of efficiencies and economies of scale by advancing regional coastal resiliency planning and delivering these essential public beach restoration projects, Meyerhoff said Friday.
We’re all facing the same challenges caused by a lack of sand supply in the littoral cell, she said. By working collaboratively, we can save a lot of time and money by advancing our shared objective of restoring the public beach for the enjoyment of all and protecting critical public infrastructure, existing structures and restoring sandy beach habitat.
SANDAGs 2001 project placed 2.1 million cubic yards of sand on 12 different beaches from Oceanside to Imperial Beach at a cost of $18 million. The 2012 project was smaller, about 1.5 million cubic yards, because fewer cities could afford to participate, and the cost was more — $26 million. State and federal grants paid for most of both projects.
The sand eventually washes away, no matter what. However, scientists are learning more about the restoration process and its benefits.
Those two projects proved the idea is feasible, said Chris Webb, a coastal scientist for the consulting firm Moffat and Nichol, at a September meeting of SANDAGs Shoreline Preservation Working Group.
The proposed regional project could be the largest yet. Oceanside alone has asked for 1 million cubic yards of said, almost four times as much as the amount obtained from this years harbor dredging.
Like most Southern California beach cities, Oceanside has a chronic shortage of sand, the result of coastal and upstream development, the rising sea level and other factors. The annual harbor dredging produces a fine-grained sediment, which erodes from the beaches quickly. Also, its only enough material for beaches between the harbor and the municipal pier, and sometimes a block or two south of the pier.
SANDAGs proposed dump would be spread farther south, below Tyson Street Park, where beaches are badly eroded and rarely replenished, Webb said. Also, sand used for the regional project is taken from deposits in the ocean outside the surf zone, where the quality is better, a larger-grained material that stays on the beaches longer.
All of the cities involved in the previous regional projects are expected to get as much sand or more than they received before, Webb said. In some places the footprint of the deposits will be adjusted based on needs and experience.
San Clemente also needs sand, even though the first phase of a long-awaited project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was completed there this year. That project placed about 140,000 cubic yards of sand near citys pier.
Other San Clemente beaches north and south of the pier still need protection.
About six miles of the coastal railroad between San Diego and Los Angeles is so close to the shore in San Clemente that waves crash over the railroad tracks during the highest tides of the year. Landslides from the bluffs above the tracks have stopped passenger service for months at time.
While the tracks clearly would benefit from the protection of a wider beach, that is not the immediate goal of the regional project, SANDAG officials said.
Our program is looking at the greatest benefit to the public, Greer said. Every coastal city has recreational facilities as well as public and private infrastructure that would benefit.
The San Clemente portion of the railroad is maintained by the Orange County Transportation Authority, which owns the right-of-way for that segment of the tracks. Its also part of the vital 351-mile-long Los Angeles-San Diego-San Diego, or LOSSAN, rail corridor, which is another independent agency.
Recent surveys of possible ocean sand sources show there should be plenty for another round of replenishment.
Core samples taken from the sea floor borrow sites near Del Mar and Mission Beach that supplied sand for the previous projects show plenty of material remains, said Dave Schug, a principal geologist at the firm AECOM.
The Del Mar site, offshore from the race track, has about 2 million cubic feet remaining in the areas previously dredged, Schug said. An additional 2 million could be obtained by expanding the site to the north.
Other potential borrow sites being considered include sand deposits in the ocean near Torrey Pines, the San Elijo Lagoon and the Santa Margarita River on Camp Pendleton.
A preliminary analysis shows widening the beaches is well worth the multi-million-dollar investment, said Phil King, a semi-retired professor of economics at San Francisco State University.
A reliable method used since the 1950s considers the assigned value of a day at the beach (now $60), visitor turnover rates, daily attendance and other factors. It shows the proposed project would bring $2 billion in economic benefits to San Diego County alone over 10 years, King said.
The numbers are incredibly huge, King said. The benefits are much greater than the costs here. You can justify this project very easily, even using fairly conservative assumptions.
The SANDAG regional project is intended to complement several other beach preservation efforts recently completed or planned in the two counties.