Sand Replenishment

San Clemente Marine Safety with sea wall exposed. The
sand reached the top railing when Marine Safety was built
Photo by David McErlean

San Clemente beaches are going to see new life in the coming season. A plan to bring new sand to the beach has been approved after presenting the Army Corps of Engineers with a 10 year sand study.

Reported by Fred Swegles of The Orange County Register, "Under that plan, the Army Corps would replenish a stretch of San Clemente beach between Linda Lane Beach and a restroom south of T-Street beach with 251,000 cubic yards of San Clemente-compatible beach sand dredged from a site off Oceanside and shipped up the coast by barge. Each import would produce a 50-foot-wide carpet of new sand, adding 2 to 3 feet to the height of the beach. As that sand is depleted, it would be replaced with the next import."

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San Clemente with the sand on north
side of pier almost gone.
Photo by David McErlean

San Clemente beaches have slowly been eroding away over the years. The city has tried to replenish the sand before using river sand. The sand was washed away after winter storms, leaving mounds of rocks that were hidden beneath the sand. Now the beach is covered in the unnatural cobblestones and still diminishing. Just recently the beach has lost so much sand that City Lifeguards have been forced to change lifeguard operations on the north side of the pier. The beach has lost so much sand that it can no longer support multiple lifeguard towers or lifeguard jeeps.

If you are worried that this replenishment program will have the same result as last time, don't. There are a few differences in this sand program. Number one is where the sand is coming from. Before the sand was dredged from a river bottoom so it didn't have the time to be broken up by the surf on its way down the coast like our natural sand. The new sand is being brought from Oceanside. The sand has been in the ocean and had time to be broken up so there shouldn't be any surprises under it in the shape of boulders. The second is the amount of sand. The sand from the last replenishment moved down the coast and was gone after a few years. The sand from this program will do the same, but instead of hoping for it to naturally return there will be another shipment on the way to rebuild the beach. 

Sea Wall at Marine Safety full exposed.
Photo by David McErlean

With the replenishment of new sand, the beach will hopefully be back to what it used to be like. There is always a chance that the project might fail, but what choice do we have. The beach is San Clemente's livelihood and it has to be protected.