Posted on August 18, 2025
The California Coastal Commission this week unanimously approved Long Beach’s 10-year dredging project, which is intended to maintain existing navigational channels and place sediment material along city public beaches.
Long Beach applied for a coastal development permit to dredge up to 150,000 cubic yards of material annually for a 10-year period from various channels, bays and harbors – including the Los Angeles River Estuary, Shoreline Marina, Rainbow Harbor, Alamitos Bay, and Cerritos Channel – and place dredged material at Alamitos Beach, Cherry Beach and Peninsula Beach, according to the Coastal Commission staff report.
Dredging refers to the process of removing sand and sediment from the seabed or shoreline to deepen navigational channels or to replenish eroded beaches. This process is often used for beach nourishment and to maintain existing navigational channels.
This is nothing new for the city, as it has gotten the commission’s approval before to do this work for the past 31 years, said Steve Hudson, district director of the South Central Coast and South Coast for the Coastal Commission.
This is the first time, however, the project has been approved for a 10-year period, Hudson said, as it was most recently approved by the Commission with a five-year authorization in December 2014.
“After 31 years, we believe we have adequate information to allow for that extension,” Hudson said during the Thursday, Aug. 14, commission meeting, “with the additional survey that would occur for each event.”
Long Beach also had to get a conditional-use permit and consistency certification from the commission to dispose dredged material offshore at a site approved by the Environmental Protection Agency; that site — which the Coastal Commission also had to, and did, OK — is located about six miles off San Pedro.
These approvals will allow Long Beach to continue its now-expired, but previously approved, maintenance dredging operation, beach nourishment program and ocean disposal program. The dredging and disposal program was largely identical to the program previously approved by the commission, according to the staff report.
The dredged sediment deemed suitable for disposal will be used for beach nourishment along the city’s beaches, Hudson said. But if the material is unsuitable for beach nourishment, then it will be disposed of at the approved site — dubbed LA-2 — or if the dredge material is determined unsuitable for either, then it will be disposed of in an upland disposal area.
Along with the annual limit of 150,000 cubic yards of dredging and disposal per year, other key elements of the prior proposal included individual sediment analysis and characterization for each dredging episode, a limit on dredging and beach replenishment to ensure that no eelgrass is adversely affected, and Caulerpa taxifolia – an invasive marine vegetation – survey requirements.
The city’s new dredging and disposal program updated the prior one by extending the expiration date to 2035; focusing expansion on the dredging boundaries for maintenance dredge activities to preserve navigational access; setting dredging depths and quantities at specific areas; proposing both hydraulic and hopper dredges methods for maintenance; and doing minor knock downs of small shoals to navigation obstructions utilizing mechanized equipment to redistribute material in a localized area without removing it from the water.
Dredge quantities of specific areas in the project area range from 200 to 100,000 cubic yards of dredging per year, according to the staff report. With the maximum being 150,000 cubic yards per year, the city said, it may only dredge a portion of that quantity in any given year.
Long Beach also emphasized that it would only perform dredging activities when absolutely necessary to maintain access to existing navigational channels. The dredging project will help protect and provide commercial fishing and recreational boating industries in the various channels, bays and harbors in Long Beach by improving navigation and safety within the bay, according to the staff report.
The primary issues associated with this development are possible impacts to recreation and water quality, and the protection of sensitive biological resources; however, the permit includes all the typical special conditions the commission requires to limit these impacts, Hudson said.
The project is the least environmentally damaging alternative and will not have significant impacts on recreation or marine resources, according to the staff report. Any impacts to recreation, water quality and biological resources will be temporary.
Those special conditions that Long Beach would have to comply with include ensuring the dredged material is compatible with the deposition sites, monitoring water quality, limiting heavy equipment impacts on beaches, surveying eelgrass pre- and post-construction, performing avian monitoring and avoidance, and minimizing impacts to beach and recreational facilities during nourishment activities, among others.
