South Orange County’s disappearing shoreline has become so severe that it’s preventing lifeguards from accessing certain areas during high tide.
That’s because coastal erosion is dwindling beaches into narrow strips of sand, some of which have become riddled with rocks and pebbles as the sand disappears.
In response to those public concerns aired by city officials last month, San Clemente’s North Beach is now getting up to 50,000 cubic yards of new sand to widen the beach in OC’s Spanish Village by the Sea.
“If you’ve been to North Beach lately, you will see that the beach is in pretty dire straits,” coastal administrator Leslea Meyerhoff told council members at a meeting last month. “There’s very little sand except for at the very back of the beach.”
“The concession stand and restrooms are being undermined by direct wave energy,” she said. “The playground is at risk. All the facilities are at risk.”
Similarly, Capistrano Beach is set to receive 20,000 cubic yards of sand in a joint project between OC Parks and OC Public Works.
Construction at Capistrano Beach is already underway after truckloads of sand began arriving last week.
Over the next few months, North Beach will be closed for sand deliveries Monday through Thursday. The beach will reopen for public access on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout the summer.
The San Clemente City Council unanimously approved a $2 million contract with GCI Construction Inc. last month to place up to 50,000 cubic yards of sand.
Council members also declared the sand loss a local emergency, finding that there is an immediate need for sand placement on a 1,500-foot strip of shoreline on North Beach.
[Read: Is San Clemente Sinking Into the Sea?]
At Capistrano Beach, workers will be placing sand on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Public access may be limited during construction, which is estimated to wrap up by the end of August.
The sand for both projects is sourced from the Santa Ana River. This excess sand gets deposited near the river after a season of heavy rainfall — usually, it would be disposed into a local landfill.
One speaker at the June 18 San Clemente City Council meeting wasn’t happy with the sand quality, bags of which were available for council members to inspect.
She said the sand had too many rocks and seemed darker than typical beach sand.
“I’m still puzzled by why we’re using sand from a river bed for a beach,” said Lois McNiccol, a San Clemente resident. “That does not look like beach sand. That doesn’t even look like trail sand.”
Meyerhoff said the sand is chemically tested before placement and it’s visually reviewed on site.
“Each load that comes to the beach will be inspected as it’s being dumped,” Meyerhoff said. “If we see a load that does not look like it should be placed on the beach, we can stop the project and work with the county to make sure they are using the right stockpiles.”
Decades of Sand Loss and Erosion
Coastal erosion has been decimating South OC’s coastline for decades as the shoreline gets smaller and smaller.
[Read: Rainstorms Put New Focus on An Orange County Coastline Washing Away]
San Clemente’s project is just one part of the city’s bigger sand replenishment effort, which is slated to place two million cubic yards of sand over the next 50 years between Linda Lane and T Street beaches.
The Orange County Transportation Authority — which owns a seven-mile stretch of train tracks that run directly adjacent to the San Clemente coastline — has been working to stabilize some of the city’s slopes and cliffsides vulnerable to landslides and erosion.
The Pacific Surfliner train, which first opened in 1888, has seen five closures since 2021 after a series of landslides, flooding and slope failures along the coast.
While the train line extends from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, the breakdowns have all occurred on a portion of tracks from San Clemente to the edge of San Diego County, most of which is less than 200 feet away from the ocean.
[Read: San Clemente Clashes With OC Transportation Officials Over Beach Erosion]
About 530 feet of San Clemente’s sand placement area is located on a stretch of land that the transportation authority is already working to reinforce with sand and rock.
“This will not only directly benefit the city, but it will also directly benefit the railroad,” Meyerhoff told council members at last month’s meeting.
About 125,000 cubic yards of sand have already been placed between Linda Lane and T-Street beaches in San Clemente. Another 125,000 cubic yards of sand are scheduled to be added this fall. That development completes the first phase of the city’s Shoreline Replenishment Project.
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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