Posted on April 21, 2025
In dire need of sand to replenish its eroding beaches, San Clemente is on the lookout for nearby offshore deposits to dredge.
Coastal Frontiers Corp., a consultant hired last year to carry out a sand investigation project, gave the San Clemente City Council an update Tuesday about its recent efforts.
The exploration plan has identified 11 possible borrow sites, mostly along Orange County’s coastline, from north to south. Working with an $800,000 contract, only six of the sites can be scouted for a week’s worth of sediment sampling later this year.
As a cost-saving measure, the goal is to find beach-quality sand as close to San Clemente as possible, even if the prospects are admittedly slim.
“This approach is a balance between the desire to focus on the San Clemente area itself with the realization that that we think there’s a low probability that we’re going to find that sand close by,” Greg Hearon, a principal engineer with Coastal Frontiers, told the City Council.
A higher probability of finding beach-quality sand is expected in north O.C., at Surfside-Sunset.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tapped the borrow site during the first phase of a 50-year sand replenishment project in San Clemente last year, after the original Oceanside dredge location spewed cobble-strewn sediment and caused delays.
A total of 251,000 cubic yards of pumped sand widened the beach surrounding San Clemente Pier.
But the borrow site’s distance from San Clemente added to the project’s overall costs.
San Clemente and its consultant are looking to dial down the cost of future sand replenishment, if possible, by finding a deposit closer to home, especially after a beach sand sales tax ballot measure failed to pass in November.
“The reward of finding sand that close is enormous,” Hearon said. “It can completely change the economics of a project.”
A mother and her son enjoy a cool morning at the beach in San Clemente.
Councilman Victor Cabral expressed reservations about spending time and money on exploring possible borrow sites that have a low probability of providing enough sand.
“We spent millions of dollars through the Army Corps of Engineers surveying all the area in front of San Clemente,” he said. “They had determined, based on the same testing that you appear to be doing, that there was no sand in this area. What is it that you’re doing differently than the Army Corps?”
Hearon noted that the spots Coastal Frontiers has identified differ somewhat from those in the Army Corps survey but acknowledged the geology wouldn’t have changed significantly since then.
“Dana Point might be the exception,” he said. “San Mateo [Point] around the corner… our geologist has identified a high spot in the bedrock that looks like it might be a stranded beach that hasn’t been explored. That has us intrigued.”
San Clemente Mayor Steve Knoblock did not want to dismiss low probability sand sites near San Clemente as zero possibility ones.
“We don’t know that there’s not sand there,” he said. “If we do strike gold, it will be a quantum change in how we get sand to our beach. It would be incredibly quick, incredibly inexpensive and voluminous. I think it’s worth the investigation.”
The exploration is awaiting the approval of two permits before it begin, possibly by late summer.
An opportunity for the sand investigation project to expand and include all potential sites identified, work that is funded by a California Coastal Commission grant awarded last year, rests with the Orange County Transportation Authority.
San Clemente is in discussions with OCTA, which has its own sand needs in San Clemente as part of a plan to armor the rail line that runs along its coast.
On April 10, the California Coastal Commission approved a partial emergency coastal development permit for OCTA to speed up plans to protect the tracks from landslides and coastal erosion.
In the permit application, OCTA laid out a proposal to add 540,000 cubic yards of sand from an offshore source, in addition to repairing more than 9,000 tons of riprap to protect four critical areas of the rail line.
The partial permit doesn’t approve all of the hard armoring elements, but on Monday the OCTA Board of Directors authorized the agency to undertake emergency actions to stabilize the tracks.
San Clemente and OCTA seek to forge a partnership in the search for offshore sand deposits.
“We’ll be working with [OCTA] to see if we can expand this study to beyond just our seven days,” said City Manager Andy Hall. “Let’s say that we found some really promising sites on day seven, but we wanted to do some additional studies. What I’ve been told is that this study can be expanded. It just costs about $60,000 a day.”
Hall stated that OCTA would cover any expansion expenses.
If a dredge site closer to San Clemente is identified, the city will move forward with permitting next year.
