Posted on October 26, 2026
Capistrano Beach Park received truckloads of sand beginning on Oct. 14 as OC Parks began efforts to replenish what has been lost and prevent further damage to infrastructure after a series of powerful waves and high tides eroded the coastline.
The $520,000 project is set to add about 9,000 cubic yards of sand over the course of two weeks from the LaPeyre Quarry native soil off Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano. Work was scheduled to continue through the end of the month, with crews operating weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., depending on wave and weather conditions.
“Sand is infrastructure. We need to start talking about it like that and acting as if these beaches are just like our roads. They need repair and replenishment,” Fifth District OC Supervisor Katrina Foley said.
The initiative comes amid continuing coastal erosion, particularly along Beach Road, where several homes have been severely damaged or lost by recent storm surges fueled by hurricanes, high tides and strong El Nino conditions. In the latest of continuing reports from Dana Point Times, the count as of last week stood at seven homes red-tagged (deemed uninhabitable). With further threats facing the area and King Tides arriving in November and December, the objective behind the added sand is to help protect existing infrastructure while providing a wider buffer between the ocean and the shoreline.
Speaking about the broader coastal erosion problem in an interview with Dana Point Times, Foley echoed her earlier remarks, saying the county needs to prioritize sand replenishment similar to “pavement repair,” with regular maintenance, rather than waiting for damage to occur.
“Our beaches are infrastructure; they are part of our coastal economy. They help us to support all the other services that we really rely on and need,” Foley said.
The sand placement at Capistrano Beach serves only as a temporary measure while the county works toward a longer-term plan to protect the shoreline and neighboring Doheny State Beach. The California Coastal Commission approved the work ahead of the larger Capistrano-Doheny Beach Nature-Based Shoreline Adaptation Project, which calls for restoring natural sand dunes to help keep sand in place and reduce damage from waves.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors recently approved a $2.4 million grant to help advance the larger project, which has faced funding delays.
Beyond this, Foley said her office has funded research into other replenishment alternatives, with one long-term solution being offshore dredging, which requires a vessel that pumps sand from offshore deposits onto eroded beaches. Unlike trucking sand in from a quarry, this technique allows crews to move higher quantities of sand more directly.
In Foley’s proposal, the idea is to secure a dredging vessel for the West Coast, which she estimated would cost approximately $200 million and would likely require partnering with other West Coast states.
“We could just have the dredger go back and forth along the West Coast,” Foley said.
In the meantime, portions of Capistrano Beach may be temporarily closed while crews work, with flaggers directing pedestrians and cyclists around construction areas.
Similar sand replenishment initiatives have been underway at San Clemente beaches in recent months and years.
