Oceanside seeks contractor to build proposed sand-retention project for beaches

Companies have until Dec. 7 to submit their proposals. The job includes processing all regulatory permits needed for construction, and the completion of documents required by the California Environmental Quality Agency and the National Environmental Policy Act.

“This project will include any and all needed public outreach and community consensus building efforts and active lobbying in support of the project at the regional, state and federal levels,” states an update the Public Works Department presented to the Oceanside City Council on Friday.

The City Council authorized spending up to $1 million on plans and permits for the project in a 4-1 vote Aug. 11. Mayor Esther Sanchez opposed the project, saying it is unlikely to be approved by the California Coastal Commission, the agency that oversees shoreline development.

The city’s money would be better spent, Sanchez said, on additional sand replenishment efforts, but other council members backed the plan.

“I want us to do everything we can to bring sand to our city,” said Councilmember Ryan Keim.

Erosion is eating away all of San Diego County’s beaches, the result of many factors such as coastal development, dammed rivers and the rising sea level.

Oceanside’s main source of sand for decades has been the annual dredging of the city’s harbor. Tides, waves and ocean currents steadily push sediment into the harbor’s mouth and main channel. Each year, usually in the weeks before Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hires a contractor to siphon the excess sand out of the harbor and pump it onto nearby beaches. Now the proposal for rock groins is being considered by the city to bring more sand to the beaches.

The rrock groins would be long lines of boulders that extend from the rock revetments now in front of beachfront homes straight out through the surf into the ocean.

Oceanside officials have considered groins in the past, but the idea failed to get support, primarily because of environmental concerns. Studies show the devices may contribute to shoreline erosion as much as they prevent it.

Sanchez said in August that the mayors of cities south of Oceanside have told her they would object to the groins because they would slow or stop the flow of sand to their region. Groups such as Surfrider Foundation also oppose sand retention structures on the beach for those same reasons.

The Coastal Commission rarely sees applications for groins, but has approved them in the past, said Public Information Officer Noaki Schwartz in August. It approved one in El Segundo in the 1980s to protect a pipeline extending from the beach to an offshore marine terminal.

Any decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, she said. Approval is more likely for repairs or maintenance of existing structures rather than to build a new one.

Also part of the proposal is a bypass system that would pump sand south through a pipe beneath the harbor. Together construction of the groins and bypass system are expected to cost about $50 million. So far the city has no money for the project, which would require state and federal grants with matching money from the city.

The city’s harbor is one of two that share the same entrance at the Oceanside-Camp Pendleton border.

The small military portion of the harbor was built in the 1940s to serve Camp Pendleton during World War II. The civilian part of the harbor in Oceanside was added in the 1960s. Studies show the harbor entrance and its jetties block the dominant north-to-south flow of sand, building big beaches at Camp Pendleton and starving the coast to the south.

The proposed bypass system would carry sand from the beach at Camp Pendleton under the harbor and onto Oceanside’s shoreline.

An experimental sand bypass system operated at the harbor from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, when it was suspended because of mechanical and financial difficulties.