Sea water seeped onto busy Pacific Coast Highway five times this month, prompting traffic closures and headaches, but also threatening to undermine the major thoroughfare that has utilities and sewer systems running under the road’s asphalt.
Bolsa Chica State Beach, one of the busiest and most popular beaches in Southern California, has had several of its parking lots and a popular beach path, used by walkers, joggers and cyclists, shut down for weeks because of the mess and damage caused by ocean flooding. Three sections of shoulder along a service road leading into lots collapsed due to the salt water damage.
“This is the worst I’ve seen it. Water was just coming over the sand berm and into the parking lot, and the wetlands were filling up, and all that water had nowhere to go except the middle of PCH,” said Angie Rivera, who until last week was operating the Caliblu Surf School from the Bolsa Chica beach. “I’ve noticed over the years, we keep losing more and more beach.”
For years, officials, scientists and concerned beach users have been sounding the alarm that the sand supply for some northern Orange County beaches has gotten dangerously low, meaning during higher tides or incoming swells, water pushes further up the beach, putting important infrastructure and public areas at risk.
“In the past, there was enough sand in that stretch of beach (at Bolsa Chica) to act as a natural berm,” Jim Merid, environmental services manager for the city of Huntington Beach, said. “Regardless of how the tides were and the wave action, there was always enough sand to keep the ocean at bay. Now, with the narrowing of the stretch of beach, that natural buffer is gone.”
Orange County’s northern coastline has been waiting for years on the next round of the Surfside-Sunset Sand Replenishment Project, which is planned to dredge up 1.75 million cubic yards of sand to deposit off Surfside beach, with currents and waves expected to push that sand south to fill in beaches through Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.
A lack of federal funding and permitting delays has stalled the next replenishment for nearly 14 years, and in recent years officials from Huntington Beach and Newport Beach have been voicing concern about ocean flooding. During a big swell in 2021, the Balboa Peninsula flooded, stranding vehicles for hours, and just a few weeks ago, the small community of Surfside had seawater creeping into alleyways and threatening homes.
The Army Corps of Engineers has long been the lead agency for big sand replenishment projects, after the 1962 Rivers and Harbors Act recognized that beaches had been impacted by the construction of dams and ports and the cementing of rivers and flood channels, which blocked sand’s natural flow and its ability to reach and replenish the coast.
The Surfside-Sunset replenishment was meant to happen every five to seven years to make up for the estimated 350,000 cubic yards of sand that erode away each year. The last happened in 2009, but when the next round was due to happen in 2016, funding wasn’t available and the project has since been in limbo.
The federal budget approved last year did include the $15.5 million in funding needed to restart the project, with non-federal agencies putting up the remaining $7.65 million, but several officials said the replenishment project likely won’t get underway for another two years.
Merid said the Army Corps is doing what it can to keep the project on track, continually updating stakeholders on the progress, but the project needs to happen soon before more damage occurs, he said.
“We’re pushing for this to move forward sooner rather than later,” he said, noting he’s been told the soonest it could be done is late 2024 or early 2025. “I don’t know if we can wait that long.”
Press contacts for the Army Corp of Engineers did not respond to requests for information.
Just how much beach has been lost at Bolsa Chica through the years?
UCI lead researcher Daniel Kahl analyzed satellite data for The Orange County Register to give a sense of how severe the erosion has been in recently flooded areas.
He said the Bolsa Chica beach had been losing 2 feet of width per year, on average, since 1985, but that rate increased to 14.8 feet per year in 2020 and 2021, the latest data available.
UC Irvine civil engineering professor Brett Sanders, who studies coastal erosion, said it’s important to not only document beach width, but also beach height or depth.
The beach crest can flatten out over time or be blown away by wind, he said, which makes it easier for ocean waves to run up over the shore.
“Once the waves overtop the beach crest, gravity will pull the flood water down into parking lots and onto Pacific Coast Highway,” he said.
Other factors may also play a part, Sanders said. Some types of swells can cause waves run up the beach further, as the recent swell did, he noted. Also, sand soaked and flattened by recent king tides may also have contributed to pushing waves more inland.
PCH is exposed and going to face repeated flooding unless steps are taken to put more sand on the beach, Sanders said. “In the absence of sand supply, our beaches get thinner over time. We’re really dependent on artificial sand supplies like beach nourishment.”
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach), who recently hosted a California Coastal Solutions Workshop at UCI, said the flooding along PCH showed the need for coastal planning, especially as future sea-level rise adds to coastal concerns.
“Every day we are seeing the ravages of the climate crisis across the state and here in our backyard,” she said. “We have to get smarter and quicker to help mitigate the impacts.”
The flooding of PCH is not the only threat to infrastructure being seen, she said, pointing to the railway that’s been shut down for months in San Clemente because waves now crashing onto a coastal section when surf is higher triggered an ancient landslide and caused the tracks to move.
“We know this is just the beginning, this is going to continue to get worse with each passing year,” she said.
Petrie-Norris called on decision makers to team with scientists to explore strategies, whether it’s accelerating the deployment of sand replenishment projects or teaming with UCI to create an early-warning system to help provide local governments with data to anticipate areas of concern.
“It’s really this slow-moving tsunami,” she said. “It seems like this threat that’s really far out. I think the problem is, once it’s real, it’s too late to act to do something about it.
“I hope that this really shocking visual makes the threat real for people,” she added, “and actually does light a fire of urgency across the board in terms of actions we are able to take.”
State Parks Superintendent Kevin Pearsall said a committee of local and federal officials met last week following the latest flooding to discuss whether the timeline for the Surfside-Sunset replenishment project could be pushed up.
“It is moving forward and everyone is involved and everybody is in support of it,” he said, noting it’s still unknown if it can start sooner.
In the meantime, State Parks is working with UCI to explore other options, such as dune restoration, that could keep sand in place, as well as possibly even elevating buildings and infrastructure above sea level.
“That may be something we have to do,” he said. “We don’t know yet.”
Short-term, he warned people to stay out of the closed areas at Bolsa Chica that are still be cleaned up.
“There are areas of that asphalt that are not stable,” he said.
The multi-use trail is still being cleaned, but should be open for this weekend’s Surf City Marathon.
Caltrans along with other agencies have been addressing flooding issues along this area of PCH for quite some time, said Caltrans spokesperson Angela Madison.
“It is not abnormal to have some flooding in that area during heavy storms or king tides. Ocean waves crossing a state beach onto and across PCH, however, is certainly atypical,” she said.
With Bolsa’s parking lot shut down for nearly a month and the beach shrinking, Rivera said she’ll no longer be running the surf school there.
Already last summer, a big hurricane swell hit and chomped away sand, creating a shore break that made it difficult for beginning surfers. She remembered commenting on the lack of sand at the time, how the lifeguard tower was almost moved into the parking lot.
“I’ve noticed it and it sucks that it’s gotten to this point,” she said. “I feel like everything is happening faster and faster. I don’t know what it’s going to look like in two years.”
Source: Orange County Register
Be First to Comment