The California Coastal Commission is asking Orange County leaders to do more enforcement to keep people from digging out sand from a wave-made berm that forms across the mouth of the Aliso Creek where it meets the Pacific ocean.

Environmentalists argue not enough is being done to protect the berm, because when sand is scooped out by people to let the creek water rush toward the ocean to create a standing wave – especially popular with skimboarders – it is also allowing pollution to wash into sensitive marine habitat. The Laguna Bluebelt Coalition and the Surfrider Foundation asked the Coastal Commission to get involved.

The commission has sent a letter recently approved by its board to county officials asking for more enforcement of the posted regulations at adjacent Aliso Beach – it’s a popular destination because of its ample parking, easy access and food and bathroom facilities.

Breaching the lagoon is akin to grading the site, the letter says, and “thus constitutes development under the Coastal Act, for which a coastal development permit is required.”

Andrew Willis, enforcement manager of the Coastal Commission, wrote in the letter that while the county has undertaken some measures, such as posting regulatory signs, the county “has not attempted to enforce county code provisions that prohibit the breaching of the lagoon.”

Environmentalists say the naturally occurring berms are critical because they regulate estuaries’ connection with the ocean and maintain essential environmental conditions for threatened wildlife, and they can help buffer inland areas at risk of sea-level rise.

Orange County Coastkeeper biologist Allison Santos recently oversaw a volunteer monitoring program done in collaboration with the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition called the Aliso Berm Buddies.  The pilot study, which went from September to December, was funded by the city of Laguna Beach.

Volunteers set up a monitoring station and handed out educational materials to people who frequented the beach. Over the four months, 109 visits were conducted by 10 trained observers at Aliso Beach and nearby Treasure Island Beach.

Volunteers reported witnessing the berm being breached nine times. And, they also observed other troubling behavior impacting wildlife in the area, Santos said.

“We observed visitors throwing debris at wildlife and walking through a group of resting Elegant terns that are known to migrate long distances,” said Santos, who on Wednesday will ask officials for more help on enforcement during a meeting of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Sleeping harbor seals with their pups were disturbed by visitors taking photos too closely at the tidepools. During the Huntington Beach oil spill, we recorded tar balls in the sand, dark, discolored water at the mouth of Aliso Creek, and a lethargic Western Grebe covered in oil at Treasure Island.”

In a response to the Coastal Commission, Tom Starnes, director for OC Parks, which oversees the county’s beaches, wrote that a report done by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board “found there is inadequate evidence to support the conclusion that water flows from the Aliso Creek mouth to the Pacific Ocean, resulting from the public’s berm breaching, causes a condition of pollution that unreasonably affects the water quality.”

The regional board in 2021 had asked the county to look into the ongoing breaches of the berm and pull data to understand the degree to which the county officials had evaluated the potential risks to public health and marine life from exposure to pollutants.

The county has posted the regulatory signs, helped with the Aliso Berm Buddies and has four water quality checkpoints at Aliso Beach which are examined weekly, Starnes wrote.

Starnes also said he acknowledges there are some still who are concerned about the berm and in a followup statement released said, “OC Parks will continue to educate the public on berm breaching activities and enforce if appropriate.”

Following the county’s response on March 30, Willis said in an interview he saw “an indication the county will take action moving forward in enforcing this activity which has been limited. We need to flesh out what the county’s next steps are.”

“We’re trying to empower the county,” he said, “from the enforcement standpoint.”

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