President Joe Biden signed a budget bill Tuesday, March 15, that includes millions of dollars to replenish sand along two large sections of Orange County’s coastline.

Replacing the lost sand isn’t just about preserving space for sunbathing and recreation, officials say, it secures an important buffer to keep the ocean from battering and flooding streets, homes and other infrastructure. Local communities have been awaiting this funding for several years, watching in the meantime as the shoreline eroded.

The Surfside-Sunset and Newport Beach Replenishment Project will now be receiving $15.5 million, while the San Clemente Shoreline Protection plan has been earmarked $9.3 million – both are projects planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Many sections of Orange County’s coast aren’t naturally wide, instead the sandy beaches are the result of projects from the 1940s through the ’60s in which harbors, flood control channels and ports were built, and then once the naturally occurring replenishment systems were gone the government began manually replacing the sand, even extending shorelines, and in the process creating an amenity now relied on to lure in tens of millions of visitors and billions in revenue annually.

But in recent years, that sand supply has eroded away and dwindled and the sea has crept closer to buildings, roads and railways, battering beaches and causing flooding and damage. Previous schedules for replenishing the sand were delayed for years by lack of funding.

Surfside-Sunset

This project will add 1.75 million cubic yards of sand in the Surfside-Sunset area at the northern end of OC’s 42-mile coastline. That sand will then be pushed by ocean currents and waves along the next 12 miles, seeding beaches in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

Historically since the 1960s, the seeding of new sand was done every five to seven years. But in 2000, the Army Corps of Engineers said future phases were no longer budgeted.

“This left the communities on the hook for the high costs and left the coast at a high risk for flooding and major storm damage,” Congresswoman Michelle Steel said in a statement announcing the funding.

And the impacts are starting to show, with the sea creeping closer to homes, businesses and roads that have become more vulnerable to storm and tide damage.

In 2020, the Balboa Peninsula and its beach parking lots, streets and homes were flooded with up to three feet of salt water when a high tide hit during a big summer swell; a one-two punch expected to become more common with climate change.

Last year, local officials ramped up their efforts to push federal decision-makers to finally get the sand replenishment project funded again.

Cost estimates are at about $23 million, with $15.5 million in federal funds included in the budget the president just signed off on and local agencies covering the remainder, about $7.63 million.

San Clemente

The seaside city on the south end of the county is getting $9.3 million to help with the sand replenishment fix it has been planning for some 20 years.

A key element of the San Clemente Shoreline Project is to protect the tracks of the Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor that run yards from the shoreline in that section of the county, said Rep. Mike Levin in a press release. “The project is designed to protect this asset while also protecting roads, buildings and other infrastructure, as well as maintain recreational use of San Clemente’s coastline.”

An estimated 2 million to 3 million people visit San Clemente to lay down towels and surf and play in the ocean – and those tourists spend money bolstering the economic health of the small seaside town.

The replenishment project will add about 251,000 cubic yards of sand to city beaches from Linda Lane to T-street, a distance of about 3,400 feet. The sand stockpile will be dredged from Oceanside, where a barge will haul it to San Clemente.

The city of San Clemente also was just awarded a $570,000 grant by the California Coastal Commission to begin regular monitoring of its shoreline, “which will track sea level and sand movement,” Community Development Director Cecilia Gallardo-Daly said. “This data will help the city prepare a site specific sand replenishment and retention feasibility program.”

City leaders are looking beyond the traditional dumping of sand, said Benjamin Benumof, who sits on the town’s Beaches, Parks and Recreation Commission, and at longer term solutions such as engineering “living shorelines” that use native plants to create a “back beach” where sand can accumulate or cobblestones to anchor the sand.

“There are certain things that are a little more new-school, out-of-the box, eco-friendly ideas that municipalities are doing up and down the coast,” he said. “You anchor the sand and sort of mimic what nature is doing.”

And while the federal funding has finally been secured, there are other areas of the city’s shore not included in the project that need attention, Benumof said, including North Beach where the sand disappears when tides are high.

There, the city chained off the stairs leading down to be beach because so much sand has eroded away there is now a big drop from the last step, he said. “It’s not even safe to walk down the stairs.”

“I’d like to see the entire San Clemente coast get nourished,” he said, “it’s nice that something’s happening.”

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