Imported Sand Completes Restoration

The last of almost 100,000 tons of sand was dumped and spread onto Seal Beach on Monday, ending a two-year project to repair years of beach erosion.

“The project is a success,” said City Manager Keith Till. Already, he said, the imported sand has helped protect homes along the beach from storm flooding during the last two years.

It had been more than a decade since the city had undertaken a restoration project this large, and the beach between the city pier and the Naval Weapons Station jetty had reached a critical point.

“We reached a perilous point with the protection of that shoreline,” said City Councilman Shawn Boyd. “The integrity of it was diminished.”

This was the first time the city has used trains to bring the sand in, which avoided having heavy trucks rumble down residential streets, causing additional noise and air pollution. The $1.1-million project moved sand from an ancient riverbed in the desert near Palmdale by rail to the Naval Weapons Station, from where it was spread on the beach between the jetty and the pier. The project was partially funded by an $813,000 state grant awarded in 1997.

Officials say the city will have to maintain the beach, bringing in new sand and redistributing sand moved around by the surf, but nothing of this magnitude should be needed for years. Boyd said he hopes the city can come up with a longer-lasting solution, such as a demonstration project the Army Corps of Engineers is trying on the other side of the naval station. That involves building an artificial reef to make the waves break farther offshore, thus causing less erosion.