Breakwater Faces a Wave of Foes

Last week, Long Beach residents discovered a natural wonder hitting their shore. Real waves. Rolling 5- to 7-foot breakers that were good enough to keep local surfers, who normally trek down to Orange County, in the city.

“The waves were beautiful to see,” said Dr. Gordon LaBedz, a physician active in the Huntington/Long Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. “We had people staying home, even coming in from other areas to surf.”

The big swells, generated by Hurricane Guillermo out of the southwest, lasted only about 24 hours. And they hit only a relatively small section of the city’s easternmost shoreline, arriving through the gap between the jetty leading into Alamitos Bay and the offshore breakwater. That rocky barrier protects the city’s port and usually stops waves long before they hit the shore.

But the breakers were enough to excite surfers and energize the Surf-rider Foundation’s budding movement to tear down the breakwater.

A potent environmental group, the foundation is one of several organizations using lawsuits and political action to save Orange County’s Bolsa Chica wetlands from development. It will kick off its campaign to take down the breakwater Saturday at Long Beach’s Belmont Pier with bands, a barbecue and a paddleboard race.

Touching off what eventually could become a battle with the Port of Long Beach, the city, shipping companies and local property owners, the Surfrider Foundation has sent out thousands of mailings, distributed fliers, circulated petitions and put up posters in shops in Belmont Shore and Naples, all with the same message: “Sink the breakwater.”

The campaign caught city and shipping officials somewhat by surprise. Reaction so far has included highly vocal opposition by one city councilman, disbelief by harbor experts and suggestions that tearing down the breakwater is a nice--though somewhat fanciful--idea that will never happen.

“Hurricanes from the south and winter storms can create quite a lot of havoc for an unprotected port,” said Capt. Karsten Lemke, president of the Steamship Assn. of Southern California. “The breakwater is essential to avoid causing damage to vessels, cargo or human life on the docks.”

Others express concerns that tearing down the breakwater could increase beach erosion, already a serious problem, and endanger waterfront homes. Long Beach is a city that has sunk nearly a foot over the years because of heavy oil drilling, and even without the big waves has homes that are below sea level.

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City Councilman Doug Drummond, whose district includes much of the city’s shoreline, said those who want to bring down the breakwater should adopt the slogan “Tear out the rocks, destroy the homes.”

Drummond said high seas regularly caused flooding and the destruction of waterfront homes during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s before the breakwater was built.

The city Parks Department, listed as a sponsor of Saturday’s Surfrider event, contends that it was misled and has asked that wording describing the event be changed to “restore the shore” rather than “sink the breakwater.”

Surfrider activists concede that they have a monumental task ahead of them to remove the nearly 50-year-old breakwater. Their plan envisions taking out only the Long Beach section of the three-part breakwater, leaving the section in front of the Port of Los Angeles intact.

Major studies, which are not now in the works, would have to be done to determine the effects of removing the breakwater, all sides agree.

Built during the 1940s to protect the Navy’s Pacific fleet, the breakwater destroyed the city’s seven miles of natural beaches, critics argue, and keeps polluted runoff water from the Los Angeles River trapped against the shore. It also deprives local waters of the cleansing action of strong currents.

As a result, they argue, the city’s beaches are one of its most underutilized assets. They love to circulate photographs of nearly deserted beaches on major holidays.

Robert Palmer, a Surfrider activist who runs a Long Beach advertising agency, said he surfed in last week’s waves.

“It was great,” Palmer said. “People were surfing who you never see here. Kids were out there playing with boogie boards. To me it was a dramatic illustration of what could happen if we open up the breakwater.”