Pipeline Replenishes Sand at Erosion-Prone Beaches

A thick, black obstacle is cluttering about a mile of beach, but this time it isn’t an oil slick, it’s a pipeline depositing sand on west Newport’s narrow, erosion-prone beaches.

Sand removed from the mouth of the Talbert Channel during major flood-control work is being pumped to beaches between 44th Street and 52nd Street via a pipeline.

Ironically, the large structure is stretched across the beach a year after the 1990 oil spill that closed 15 miles of shoreline, including the channel mouth and west Newport beaches, which were hit especially hard by the slick.

All beaches will remain open during the dredging project, which will take about three months.

“We’ve have had some inquiries about it, but nothing serious,” said Newport Beach Marine Safety Lt. Ray Garver. “It’s a real popular surfing beach, but we don’t anticipate it hindering the surfers. They just have to step around it. I look at this as a real positive thing, because we’re getting some nice, clean sand on our beaches.”

West Newport beaches have had a chronic erosion problem. Groins constructed between 28th and 56th Street in the late 1960s helped stop the shifting sand, but city officials want to renourish the beaches because they remain narrow.

Ben Nolan, Newport Beach’s public works director, said the California Coastal Commission, which regulates beachfront projects, required the rerouting of the Talbert Channel sand. About 80,000 tons will be deposited.

“Even with the groins, the beach is still narrower in that location. So in an effort to keep the sand on the beach, it was determined this was the best place to put it,” he said. “It’s always best to keep sand on the beach where it belongs.”