Making a Stand in Shifting Sands : County needs to act to preserve its eroding beaches for future generations

A trip to the beach is relatively effortless in San Diego, no more than a 45-minute drive for most folks.

So, romping with the dog at Ocean Beach, exploring tide pools at La Jolla, jogging along Pacific Beach, watching a sunset from a Cardiff restaurant, swimming off the Silver Strand, surfing off San Onofre--the stuff of ‘60s songs and today’s tourism--are all a part of everyday life here.

Many us don’t go very often, but we take for granted that the beach will always be there.

Much of the beach we see today should be--at least for awhile. But San Diegans in 2020 or 2040 will be able to sun themselves at Moonlight Beach only if this generation’s leaders and citizens take steps to make sure there is sand on the beach.

San Diego’s disappearing beaches, rarely talked about except after bad storms, could become one of the area’s major problems in the next century.

The extent of the problem was spelled out in technical terms recently in the “State of the Coast” report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The beaches from the Mexican border to Dana Point in Orange County were the first in the state to receive such comprehensive scrutiny.

In many ways, the study just confirmed what scientists and environmentalists have been saying for years. Damming rivers, sand mining, harbors and seawalls, and bluff-top development all strip sand from the beaches and deposit much of it behind the dams or in offshore canyons.

The process becomes a vicious cycle when people try to correct the damage. When a river is dammed, sand cannot reach the beach. This narrows the beach and allows waves to hit shoreline cliffs. The cliffs replace some of the sand, but the erosion imperils bluff-top structures. To save the structures, people build seawalls, which in turn further impede the sand.

In addition, mining takes sand out of the river. Every ton of sand mined for asphalt and concrete is one less ton for the beach.

To preserve the beaches, man is going to have to replace what he has removed and start to regard sand as a valuable resource worth protecting.

This will be costly, as Oceanside found in the early 1980s, when it spent $4 million in city and federal funds to replenish its beaches.

But the alternative, a beach-starved coastline, could be even more costly. None of the possible solutions look very appealing. Tearing out dams, in a county with a chronic water shortage, is not feasible. And hauling out the sand behind the dams is expensive.

Allowing beaches to get their sand from eroding cliffs would mean the loss of many bluff-top buildings. Many of these structures should never have been built and letting some of them go will probably be necessary, but that is not going to be popular and is not likely to be a major part of the solution. But more restrictive laws on bluff-top development and greater enforcement of current laws will be. As will greater restrictions on seawalls. In fact some existing ones may have to be torn down.

Both homeowners and the community are finding that bluff-top buildings are an unaffordable luxury.

Limits on sand mining might also be necessary, or mining companies may have to compensate by paying for sand to be hauled to beaches.

One hopeful sign from the Army Corps of Engineers study is that local officials are recognizing the need for building and sand-mining restrictions.

Another hopeful sign is that the report should lead to a regional sand management plan by the San Diego Assn. of Governments. Each community dealing individually with seawalls and cliffs doesn’t work; sand moves from one beach to another.

If the regional plan gets strong popular support, it will be easier to find the money to implement it.

As with other environmental problems, everyone is going to have to bear the cost to preserve what nature could have done alone--had humans not interfered.

But our beaches are worth the effort. The county’s economic and recreational well being depend on it.