The Coast Line

Local Advocates for Sustainable Beaches

This Issue Includes:

Oceanside Harbor Dredging Mobilization

On April 11th, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) has begun mobilizing for the annual dredge of the Oceanside Harbor inlet. The entire dredge cycle is anticipated to last 6 to 8 weeks, with a completion date no later than the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.

The average amount of sand dredged from the inlet and placed onto Oceanside beaches is between 200,000 and 250,000 cubic yards. Oceanside Harbor inlet is dredged annually by the ACOE to ensure vessels can navigate safely in and out of Oceanside Harbor and Camp Pendleton. Throughout the year, the Harbor inlet accumulates sand during storms and south swells. The sand buildup creates a shallow depth in the inlet and breaking waves that can limit navigation.

Safety measures during this operation include a delineated pathway for moving equipment, posted signs, flagmen and a lead vehicle for tractors. No events in the area are permitted during any portion of the dredge cycle. Environmental safety measures are also implemented.

SOS Oceanside is working with the Oceanside City staff to get much of the sand deposited on our extremely depleted beaches South of the Oceanside pier with an objective to get the sand well South of Tyson and Wisconsin Streets. For years getting sand deposited South of the pier was not allowed due to the grunion run. The city has approved an additional $600K to fund additional dredged sand to put on our beaches. City officials said that we wouldn’t know if we will get that additional sand until the company and the US Army Corps have their project meetings.

Please use caution on the beach in and around the pipe and vehicles.

A Case for Oceanside

The Oceanside Sand Replenishment and retention Plan came under attack by our neighbors before the “baby was out of the cradle.” First, Carlsbad, followed in lockstep by Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach voted to oppose the plan. Deputy Mayor Ryan Keim did his best to stem the tide and pleaded for consideration of the plan on its merits, as did many of SOS members and others. It fell on deaf ears, as it was obvious council members’ minds had been made up before discussions began.

The bright spot in all of this was the incredible effectiveness of the SOS alert notification system. In addition to postings on social media our call to action resulted in hundreds of letters to the Carlsbad, Del Mar and Encinitas council members. Many of the letters were backed-up with personal call-in testimony during the council meetings. The articulate and knowledge-based communications of our members stood out in stark contrast to the emotional, unevidenced rantings of the Surfriders Association and the usual few naysayers from Oceanside. What was disappointing and hard to believe was that Mayor Sanchez called in to the Carlsbad Council to oppose, yes oppose, her own city’s plan.

Believing they were placing the “final nail in the coffin”, our neighbors in Carlsbad, Encinitas, and Del Mar announced that their opposition resolutions would be forwarded to the Coastal Commission. It appeared to be a foregone conclusion that the Coastal Commission would be allied in opposition.

Our neighbors may be in for a surprise. What the city councils missed in their refusal to consider the plan’s merits is that the Oceanside plan substantially increases public beach access. It is the fundamental goal of the coastal commission. Any reading of the Coastal Act would conclude the Coastal Commission will support and encourage the Oceanside plan, which would increase public beach access significantly more than any alternative and certainly more than the status quo.

The Coastal Commission should know that the catastrophic loss of sand in Oceanside has dramatically reduced public beach access. The status quo, which denies public access to over half of the shoreline, is not an option for a government agency tasked with maximizing public beach access. Oceanside is the only regional city that has funded a positive plan to solve the problem of sand erosion. The other cities are quick to oppose Oceanside’s plan but offer nothing in its place. Instead, the rush to judgment resulted in the myotic focus on the retention aspect of the plan taken out of context and an unproven assumption that groins would block the downdrift of sand. That notion ignores the sand replenishment part of the plan and oceanographic science that strongly suggests that sand nourishment with sand retention can maintain wider beaches without negative downdrift impact.

Improvement to the Oceanside shoreline would increase public access more than any potential effects to neighboring cities. Oceanside has almost three times the number of people per mile beach as Carlsbad; four- and one-half times Encinitas; twenty-seven times Del Mar; and six times Solana Beach. No other city has a transit center with adjacent parking, walking distance to the beach. It makes Oceanside accessible to more inland residents, particularly those from underserved communities, than any other city.

The California Resiliency Partnership (CRP) recognizes the importance and impact of Oceanside. It has selected Oceanside as a scalable model to address shoreline erosion across the US and worldwide. Oceanside is featured in several of its high-quality videos.

Lastly, coming out of the publicity associated with the neighboring cities, criticism of the Oceanside plan is the refocus of SANDAG on sand replenishment. Thanks to Deputy Mayor Keim, the subject was discussed in the recent Shoreline Preservation Committee with a focus on a follow-on to SANDAG’s 2002 and 2012 sand replenishment projects. The committee agreed to a special meeting in April to specifically address the issue.

Oceanside Hires Local Coastal Zone Program Manager

After reviewing applicants’ resumes and interviewing the most qualified candidates, our City Manager, Jonathan Borrego announced April 5th that Oceanside has hired Jamye Timberlake as our new Local Coastal Zone Program Manager. Jayme is an experienced environmental Analyst with a demonstrated 12-year history of working in the environmental services industry. She is skilled in Habitat Restoration, Natural Resource Management, Wetland and Coastal Ecology, Environmental Awareness, and Environmental Education. Her education background includes a master’s degree focused in Coastal Zone Management from University of Miami. Jayme starts her new position in Oceanside on May 9, 2022.

With a city area of 42.2 square miles, the Oceanside City staff is kept extremely busy, keeping everything well administered and maintained. The day-to-day duties of keeping our beach city running and planning for the future are challenging and require significant staff focus. Oceanside also oversees and strives to maintain almost 4 miles of beaches and coastline. As the Beaches are one of Oceanside’s most valuable resources, our new Oceanside Local Coastal Zone Program Manager will provide a “focused eye” on our shoreline and address all aspects of shoreline preservation. This is particularly critical given the current catastrophic condition of our beaches and the availability of historic amounts of funding opportunities from federal, state, and other sources to restore our shoreline. The function of locating and sorting out the myriad sources of funds and assisting in securing equitable distribution of those funds to restore sand to the Oceanside shoreline alone justifies the full-time focus. Some of the roles and responsibilities of the Oceanside Local Coastal Program Manager are:   

• Monitoring Coastline and Beaches with respect to safe access, developing projects for access improvements along our shoreline.

• Development and implementation of coastal management plans and policies, including strategies for managing sea level rise.

• Managing the City’s sand replenishment program to include tracking SCOUP permitting and opportunistic sand sources. Liaison with Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton for coastal issue coordination.

• Assisting with implementing the City’s Climate Action Plan.

• Grant writing; developing workshops and/ or presentations.

• Extensive coordination for regional replenishment and retention efforts with sister Coastal Cities, regulatory boards, commissions, and agencies such as SANDAG, the Coastal Commission, State Coastal Conservancy, Army Corp of Engineers, and coastal nonprofit organizations such as Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper, among others.

SOS Oceanside applauds our city leadership for creating and filling this position in a prompt manner! SOS is looking forward to working with you Jayme. I’m sure you will become a familiar face on our shoreline. Congratulations on your new position and welcome to the Oceanside Team!! 

Federal Funding for Oceanside Sand

Congressman Mike Levin has recently announced that he has secured $1.8 million to fully fund the Oceanside Special Shoreline Sand Study. Representative Levin worked to secure full funding of this Study in the bipartisan U.S. Infrastructure Law recently passed by the Senate. The Study is intended to result in a federal project to restore the Oceanside shoreline to conditions that existed before the construction of the Camp Pendleton Boat Basin.

This Study and project have been anticipated since Congress passed the FY 2000 Water Resources Act, directing the Army Corps of Engineers to mitigate the effects of the Boat Basin. After years of incomplete funding and budget cuts, engineering work is anticipated to begin later this year. Currently, the City and Army Corps are discussing the project's scope and other logistics.

Representative Mike Levin has also secured funding for sand replenishment projects in Encinitas, Solana Beach, and San Clemente.

Progress Update on Oceanside Sand Solution

GHD is the only qualified bidder who replied to Oceanside’s request for proposals for this project. Speaking with Brian Leslie, GHD’s lead on this project, he stated he has received no news from the city about the award. Although, one can conclude that with only one bidder, GHD, in the near future, will be officially named.

Brian believes the city is paused on the project until the city understands the scope and timeline of the Army Corps of Engineers completion of the 2015 study. The city has confirmed this is the case in that they are working with the USACE and do not want to duplicate efforts and their objective is a well-coordinated solution for restoring our coastline.

So, as is the case with many things in life, patience is the guiding word. But in this case, we all must exercise vigilant patience. Not accepting any unnecessary delays.

Restoring, replenishing, and retaining needs to start yesterday!

Testing New Approaches to Protect Coastal Communities

Community involvement is key to co-developing long-term resilience for coastal cities battling to save their beaches from rising sea levels and erosion.

Resilient Cities Catalyst’s California Resilience Partnership (CRP) Program has joined with The Resilience Shift to learn about and share real-life resilience stories, from across California that explore how things might be done differently and to understand the shift in perspective and in practice that is enabling this change.

Southern California’s coasts are on the frontline of climate change. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report confirmed that the region, like other coastal communities, will experience more frequent flooding and increased cliff, bluff, and beach erosion. With beaches and bluffs eroding at an annually accelerating rate, communities and ecosystems they depend upon face significant risks.

A thriving coastal city, Oceanside is one of many cities battling to save its beaches from rising sea levels and erosion. After years of traditional planning and coastal management strategies, the City is now piloting a new approach. In the summer of 2021, Oceanside City Council voted to take action with a plan to stabilize its beaches.  This action plan will pilot an approach in the region that will involve the community in protecting community assets and co-develop a long-term sustainability strategy. The hope is that this process combined with a new approach, will buy some time to plan for the future. Every coastline and community is different – a solution that works well in one place may not be the best for another. But, other coastal communities facing similar challenges can learn from this resilience building process. 

To view this video and others in the series, please visit: www.rcc.city/crpvideos

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