Sophia Bird | Writer
25 May, 2024
Over the years, the beautiful shoreline of San Clemente has slowly been deteriorating. As San Clemente is a beach town and is known for good surfing, this has been detrimental to those who live here and to those who visit. As senior Maddie Branch explains, “a lack of sand affects tourism and ability for both locals and tourists to fit on the beach due to limited space, making the beaches feel more crowded and uncomfortable.” The critical state of these beaches has led to worries by many local beach-goers and officials in Orange County.
Due to this, San Clemente has started a Sand Replenishment Shoreline Project. The sand will be placed between Linda Lane beach and T-Street beach, around 3,214 feet of beach. Around 251,000 cubic yards of sand will be added to the beach every six years for the next fifty years. This will result in over two-million cubic yards of sand being restored to the beach. A mix of sand from an offshore deposit south and seawater will be pumped via a dredge that will be connected to an onshore pipe in order to create more beach space. More equipment will be used on the shore to shape this sand into a beach.
To get the money for this project, the City of San Clemente is contributing 35% of it with $5,011,000 while $9,306,000 of federal funds have been allocated for this project, contributing 65% of the pay.
The restoration of sand in beaches will lead to many benefits. First, as sophomore Theo Stephens points out, “it will bring more people, tourists and locals alike, to the beaches and the city will have a better atmosphere with the beaches being more open.” To add on, as the city itself explains it, the addition of sand will “reduce coastal storm damages to property and infrastructure along the shoreline, improve public safety, and reduce coastal erosion and shoreline narrowing to improve recreational opportunities for beach users.”
Clearly, the restoration of sand on the shores of San Clemente will be of great benefit to the community as a whole for many different reasons. Our summers will continue to be filled with long beach days with a lot of room thanks to this project!
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