San Clemente needs sand to replenish its beaches. Can the city find a source close to home?

San Clemente is at risk of losing its reputation as a beach town unless it finds sand to replenish its shorelines. So on Tuesday, the City Council will decide on a list of potential sites to pull from — hopefully close to home.

Coastal erosion over the years has left some of the city’s beaches with only a narrow strip of sand, cutting off public access in some areas. To fully replenish its beaches, San Clemente needs between 2 million and 5 million cubic yards of sand.

On Tuesday, city leaders will decide on sites the city can potentially get sand from before a consultant group can begin testing the sand later this year for viability.

“ Every sand has different characteristics and there's beach quality sand that you can put on the beach, and it's likely to remain there a little bit longer,” Andy Hall, San Clemente’s city manager, said about the need to test sand. “If you put sand that's too fine on the beach, it'll just wash off when you have large storms or it swells, and if you put it too large, it won't move around and fill in the gap. There's kind of a science in grain size that you want to make sure you get the right kind of sand on the beach so that it's as natural as possible.”

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

Hall said the city is trying to do what nature does naturally.

“ We dammed up the rivers and we put freeways and railroad tracks and other things in the way so that the sand can't migrate to the beaches,” he said.

How we got here

San Clemente and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have embarked on a sand replenishment project in which every five years, around 200,000 cubic yards of sand will be deposited on a half-mile stretch of beach between T Street and Linda Lane. The 50-year project will see around 2 million cubic yards of sand deposited.

But in 2023, when the project kicked off, sand was first deposited from Oceanside that turned out to be mostly cobble with very little beach-grade sand, damaging equipment, so it was paused until the team was able to find a better source.

They were able to locate an interim source of sand at a quarry — or a pile of sand out in the water — off the Huntington Beach-Seal Beach area called Surfside Sunset, Hall said.

Having to travel farther north to Surfside Sunset, Hall said, added to the cost.

The California Coastal Commission then gave the city a grant to find sand closer home. On Tuesday, city leaders will choose from some of the options a consultant group, Coastal Frontiers Corp., presents to begin testing.

“ If we can find a deposit of sand close to the city, the reward is huge,” Hall said. “The amount of not only money that will be saved, but the environmental impacts of all the air quality and everything.”

Brett Sanders, a professor at UC Irvine, said the study to find pockets of sand that can be used for beach replenishment is a “really great opportunity.”

“ We have very limited data on the availability of sand along the coastline of southern Orange County,” Sanders said, adding that finding sand closer to San Clemente will open up savings for taxpayers.

 The beaches of Orange County, he added, are “enormously important for the economy of the region” as they drive tax revenue by attracting people to local hotels and restaurants.

“When coastal communities look at the cost of maintaining the beaches, they look at the potential losses they might find in the future if they didn't have beaches,” Sanders said. “ Some of these investments in beaches start looking like a really good value.”

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.
Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The San Clemente City Council meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. on May 6. You can watch here.