ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Timely Move by Seal Beach

The California Coastal Commission was right Monday to grant a request from Seal Beach to start widening its beach as soon as possible. Last week’s wind-whipped seas and crashing waves were not a good omen. Under rainy skies, there was the depressing sight of oceanfront homeowners piling up sandbags to absorb flood waters they feared were on the way.

Fortunately, the flooding was minimal. But the storm prompted Seal Beach officials to ask the Coastal Commission to grant the city’s request for putting more sand on the beach as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the commission’s scheduled consideration at an Oct. 7 meeting. The commission’s staff already favored the widening plan. The speedup gains the city an extra week, which could be important if the weather turns bad again.

As the rain fell last Thursday, workers from the Seal Beach Public Works Department and the Orange County Fire Authority built a sand berm that stretched six blocks. It helped block the water from reaching houses. A wider beach would require the water to travel farther before reaching buildings.

The beach widening would cost an estimated $1.1 million, with the state paying about three-quarters of that and the city the rest. Some parts of East Beach would be widened by about 70 feet, using as much as 100,000 cubic yards of sand from a quarry near Palmdale. The protection would extend to streets and homes behind the beach as well, diminishing the damage from even a major storm. The beach and the city’s pier are popular with visitors, and protecting those attractions is a worthwhile expenditure of funds.

The widening will take six to eight weeks. Time is important with the region facing forecasts for a rainy season that could be far worse than usual because of the climatological condition known as El Nino.

Widening the beach will not guarantee a trouble-free winter, of course; there is a price to pay for living so close to the ocean. But the widening can help reduce the worry for homeowners and others threatened by winter storms.