Officials, Experts Plot War on Shore Erosion

HUNTINGTON BEACH — For years, California’s coastal cities have fought a frustrating war against sand erosion that has caused millions of dollars in property damage and eaten away beaches.

“Beaches are the essence of Southern California,” said Reinhard E. Flick, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who spoke at a state meeting on shore preservation here Wednesday. “And in terms of tourism, it is the most valuable asset, drawing tourists from throughout the world.”

But not enough has been done to get a message to the public that beaches, which generate millions of dollars in tourism dollars, should be viewed as infrastructure and maintained as bridges and roads, Flick said.

Flick, president of the California Shore & Beach Preservation Assn., said the meeting aimed to talk about solutions, propose the state’s first assessment of erosion problems, and discuss forming a coastal coalition to help draft beach management legislation.

The legislation, called the California Public Beaches Enhancement Act, would earmark $15 million in state funds to plan, restore and stabilize beaches. Funds can be taken from the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Fund, which goes into the state’s general fund. Once finalized, the bill could be introduced this year.

Attending the meeting were coastal engineers and oceanographers, as well as officials of coastal cities and counties.

Larry Paul, Orange County’s manager for coastal facilities, said that beaches are “benign structures,” such as flood control channels, and “you can’t see problems or changes because they occur so slowly.”

But when a city’s beach suffers a loss of sand, seaside homes lose protection and beach users lose a valuable recreational resource, Paul said.

Paul pointed out that last year, beach revenue from the state’s Orange Coast District, which is largely in Orange County, represented one-fourth of day use fees in the entire state park system.

“But there is no statewide coastal solution, and we need one,” Paul said. “That’s why this meeting is important.”

Virtually every coastal city in the state is affected by coastal erosion.

In Encinitas in northern San Diego County, several private homes slipped down steep cliffs that were undermined by erosion.

“In fact, Encinitas has 6.1 miles of coastline,” City Councilman James Bond said. “But mostly our beaches are steep bluffs.”

Bond said Encinitas attempted to have the beaches declared a nuisance so they could be repaired without following time-consuming and expensive state Coastal Commission guidelines. But the city backed down after being told by the commission that the city would have to assume legal liability.

“We just couldn’t afford that,” Bond said.

In Seal Beach, officials have been fighting a never-ending battle against the pounding surf south of the Municipal Pier and in Surfside, City Manager Keith Till said.

“On the south side of the pier,” Till said, “we have an amazing erosion problem every year. Every year, the city goes to the federal government with pictures and charts arguing that this is a valuable recreational area that needs protection.”

Meeting participants agreed that a new way must be found to get money to solve the erosion problem.