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Replenishing sand and widening the beaches in San Clemente is one of the current city council’s biggest priorities after decades of coastal erosion have left the Spanish Village by the Sea sinking into the waves.
Beaches in the South Orange County town have slowly dwindled into narrow strips of sand as waves erode the shoreline, leaving some areas inaccessible to lifeguards during high tide.
It’s gotten so bad that waves are often seen crashing against the train tracks and bluffs that run adjacent to the ocean, resulting in cliff failures and five different train closures since 2021.
[Read: Transportation Officials Discuss Future of OC’s Collapsing Coastal Railway]
In response, the city launched a multi-pronged effort to replenish the city’s beaches and bring back enough sand to protect the train tracks, keep the beach wide enough for the public to enjoy and protect the city’s reputation as a beach town.
At the council’s Tuesday night meeting, the members voted to push forward two different projects that will bring an extra hundred thousand cubic yards of sand to beaches in the next few years as officials continue to work on long-term efforts.
Four Different Sand Replenishment Projects
City officials have four different ongoing projects to get more sand on the beaches.
At North Beach, the city already approved placing 30,000 cubic yards of sand from the Santa Ana River.
[Read: Bolstering South Orange County’s Coastline]
That project is currently ongoing — but faster than expected.
The contractor is expected to finish placing the sand in half the time, saving the city tens of thousands of dollars.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday night to use the surplus funds to add an extra 7,000 cubic yards of sand in that project at no additional cost than originally planned.
“I think this is an exciting proposition,” Councilmember Steve Knoblock said during the meeting. “We’re getting 25, 30% more sand, and we’re not increasing our budget. I got to commend the city for taking on the management and oversight instead of hiring a contractor.”
The city is also working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and California State Parks to place two million cubic yards of sand over the next 50 years.
San Clemente is currently in the first phase of that project — with about 114,000 cubic yards already placed.
But now the Army Corps is asking for an additional $2.6 million to place the remaining 83,000 cubic yards on the shoreline due to cost increases.
Although the city has already invested $15 million in the project, they voted Tuesday night to pay the additional funds in order to continue the partnership with the federal government, which has already committed to paying for half of the project over the next 50 years.
The city’s two other projects are partnerships with the Orange County Transportation Authority and the San Diego Association of Governments. Both are working to place sand on beaches up the Southern California coast, including San Clemente.
OCTA officials are looking to place about 500,000 cubic yards on San Clemente beaches while the Association estimates another million cubic yards could be coming to the city.
Both of those projects are still conceptual and in the early planning stages.
San Clemente residents will also consider a sales tax increase on the ballot in November that would collect funds earmarked for these sand replenishment projects and future efforts.
City officials have emphasized that if the ballot measure doesn’t pass then it will be challenging to find the money to pay for the sand the city needs.
“We would continue to have to rely on some of our partners,” City Manager Andy Hall said when asked what the city would do if the ballot measure doesn’t pass. “We’d have to try and find either federal grants, state grants, county grants.”
“We wouldn’t have the resources readily available to just every time sand becomes available to jump on that opportunity,” he said.
[Read: San Clemente Needs More Money For Sand]
Leslea Meyerhoff, the city’s coastal administrator, said about five million cubic yards is needed to restore the city’s beaches that have dwindled due to coastal erosion.
“We’ve lost so much sand over the many decades now that the natural sand supplies have been cut off and we have to make that sand supply up manually,” she said.
“We’re looking at all manners of inland sources and offshore sources to supplement what mother nature would have brought to us.”
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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