Locals Urge State to Prioritize Seal Beach's Erosion Problem

When it comes to sand, Seal Beach needs it bad, a group of residents and city staffers said Tuesday.

At a community meeting aimed at finding cheaper and more effective ways of dealing with sand erosion, locals said they wanted city beaches to be a “high priority” for county, state and federal officials.

Members of the Coastal Sediment Management Work Group – a state taskforce working on the erosion problem – presented their draft of a plan for dealing with longshore drift, a process in which tides, storm damage and other types of erosion can carry sand away from Orange County beaches.

Some cities, like Seal Beach, have to replenish the sand to keep the beach from vanishing entirely.

According to presenters, the Surfside Beach and Sunset Beach replenishment was one of the “high priority” activities on the state’s draft plan for the region, and the city's East Beach replenishment was classified as "medium priority."

That didn’t sit well with attendees.

"East Beach-Seal Beach must be moved to a higher priority,” said Sean Crumby, assistant city manager.

David Spitz, an associate city engineer, said one reason it should take a higher priority for the state is that the cost over the years is prohibitive, especially since the city has only about 25,000 people.

When the city last replenished the beach in 2009, it cost $1.1 million, Crumby said.

“For a city of Seal Beach’s size, that’s unsustainable,” Spitz added. “You lose 10,000 cubic yards a year -- you have a problem."

Some of the possible solutions presented to deal with erosion across the county included the familiar -- carrying sand via trucks from a beach with plentiful sand to an eroded beach -- to less common ideas such as artificial reefs or dam bypassing in which sand that builds up behind dams is carried to eroded beaches.

Throughout the meeting, attendees urged the taskforce to be mindful of everything from protected species in the sand along to even the tiniest of details such as the consistency of the sand granules.

Joe Kalmick, owner of Main Street Art and Framing, suggested officials check samples from multiple sand sources.

“We would save a lot of money if we analyze the type of sediment of donor sites," Kalmick said. “Have them all evaulated and grab a bucket, so to speak.”

Also at the meeting, presenters gave information on local protected animals such as grunion, terns and the snowy plover that officials need to consider as they formulate the plan for the county beaches.

Attendee Loni Adams, a San Diego County resident who works for the State Department of Fish and Game, said she wanted to make sure officials didn’t ignore some of the local wildlife such as the effect on Pismo clams when considering sand replenishment.

Former Seal Beach Councilman Ron "Chi" Kredell said that he wanted to make sure officials used sources of sand that match the grain size of Seal Beach.

“Don’t get anything that’s not that granular size," Kredell said.

Every two years, the city moves sand from West Beach to East Beach, and Kredell said that if officials don't have the right granule size, "within a year, it’ll be back to the West Beach."