San Clemente officials are hoping to expand their chances of bringing sand to the coastal town’s shore, renewing a program that will allow the city to seek out “opportunistic sand.”
But first, it needs to weave through a maze of permitting and approvals that could take up to two years, and likely spend hundreds of thousands dollars, just to get the go-ahead to find available sand to bring to its beaches.
San Clemente city leaders this week approved renewing its SCOUPS permit – short for Sand Compatibility and Opportunistic Use Program – a state program it had participated in about a decade ago, but its five-year permit expired.
The step is the latest in the town’s attempt to manage and maintain its eroding coastline, where at times during high tide several of its beaches become a sliver or are non existent.
Maintaining sand is important not just for recreational space, but because the beach is a major tourism draw and sand serves as a buffer between the ocean and infrastructure, such as the railroad that passes along its shoreline.
The program would allow the city to explore opportunities outside of the pending U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project – which will add about 251,000 cubic yards of sand between T-Street and Linda Lane once it resumes after delays – to add supply to other areas of the city’s beach in need, city coastal administrator Leslea Meyerhoff recently explained to the City Council.
“We’re looking for opportunistically-available sources – sediment that comes out of Santa Ana River, excavation from construction sites where there’s export material compatible with the beach, landslide material that has fallen onto the slope,” said Meyerhoff. “The program is opportunistic in nature, but it is an important tool to have in the toolbox and quite a few cities and counties have them in California.”
OC Parks is also currently in the SCOUPS application process, but San Clemente wants to be able to do its own projects,…
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