Truckloads of sand will be heading to two south Orange County beaches starting Monday, July 8, as officials try to salvage sand-starved shores at Capistrano Beach in Dana Point and North Beach in San Clemente.
The county’s southernmost coastal town will get an estimated 50,000 cubic yards of sand at North Beach, an area in San Clemente that has long suffered from coastal erosion – now, at high tide little or no sand space is left for beachgoers.
At Capistrano Beach, another 20,000 cubic yards is planned, following a similar replenishment project that brought double that amount last summer to the beach, which had also been battered by a series of strong swells in recent years.
The sand is from a surplus stuck upstream in the Santa Ana River, natural debris that flows down the waterway but needs to be removed due to flooding concerns.
In previous years, the sand supply had been taken to landfills, but rather than let it go to waste, county officials worked to find ways to use the sand for area beaches in need.
Coastal erosion is an issue plaguing many beach towns across California, due to a number of factors including the concreting of channels, development and droughts that lock sand in place, rather than allowing it to naturally flow down stream to the coast. At the same time, big swells and high tides chomp away at beaches – a problem that experts worry could worsen as climate change intensifies.
Replenishment projects are just one way authorities are trying to manage the coastline to keep the beaches intact – important not just for recreation but also a tourism and economic driver and protection for infrastructure.
San Clemente is also exploring various “sand retention” structures, studying ways to not just infuse sand onto the beach, but keep it in place using jetties or artificial offshore structures. There’s also been talk of a tax to help fund such beach-saving efforts.
A recent project in partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers added…
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