201904.03
0

Can 475 ‘sand cubes’ protect Capo Beach from further erosion?

by in News

Dawn McKnight was out walking her two dogs along what’s left of the Capistrano Beach parking lot in Dana Point on Wednesday afternoon, April 3, when she stopped short of the construction work taking place on the sand.

“Interesting,” she said of the massive sand cubes being set out like a makeshift wall.

An estimated 475 sand cubes — 3-by-3-foot white plastic bags filled with sand — were being stacked next to one another along the eroding beach, where strong waves, high tides and a rising sea level have battered the area for years.

Installation of the estimated 1,000 cubic yards, or 2.7 million pounds, began Tuesday and will take about 20 days to complete.

  • Dawn McKnight was out walking her two dogs along what’s left of the Capistrano Beach parking lot in Dana Point on Wednesday afternoon, April 3, when she stopped short of the construction work taking place on the sand. “Interesting,” she said of the massive sand cubes being set out like a makeshift wall. An estimated […]

  • Dawn McKnight was out walking her two dogs along what’s left of the Capistrano Beach parking lot in Dana Point on Wednesday afternoon, April 3, when she stopped short of the construction work taking place on the sand. “Interesting,” she said of the massive sand cubes being set out like a makeshift wall. An estimated […]

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  • Dawn McKnight was out walking her two dogs along what’s left of the Capistrano Beach parking lot in Dana Point on Wednesday afternoon, April 3, when she stopped short of the construction work taking place on the sand. “Interesting,” she said of the massive sand cubes being set out like a makeshift wall. An estimated […]

  • Workers install “sand cubes,” plastic bags filled with sand, at Capo Beach to try and halt relentless erosion in the area, a result of sea level rise and eroding beaches on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. It will take about 20 days to install the beach buffers in an attempt to save whatÕs left of the small stretch of Dana Point coast. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Workers install “sand cubes,” plastic bags filled with sand, at Capo Beach to try and halt relentless erosion in the area, a result of sea level rise and eroding beaches on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. It will take about 20 days to install the beach buffers in an attempt to save whatÕs left of the small stretch of Dana Point coast. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Dawn McKnight was out walking her two dogs along what’s left of the Capistrano Beach parking lot in Dana Point on Wednesday afternoon, April 3, when she stopped short of the construction work taking place on the sand. “Interesting,” she said of the massive sand cubes being set out like a makeshift wall. An estimated […]

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This is the latest attempt by the county to save what’s left of the small stretch of beach, which sits south of Doheny State Beach and north of San Clemente. The parking lot and beach area have been closed for months.

The sandbags will remain in place until OC Parks finalizes a solution and obtains required California Coastal Commission permits to mitigate erosion along the beach, Shannon Widor, strategic communications officer for OC Public Works, said via e-mail.

The sand cubes also will be placed along a section next to the paved path west of the Beach Road entrance, due to the beach erosion that has occurred there as well, he said.

Already, the basketball court hoops have been taken down, and an adjacent restroom demolished. A wooden walkway is gone. Parking kiosks are no more.

A mound of sand sitting in the parking lot will fill in around the cubes.

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Heavy boulders, or “rip rap,” were brought in a few months ago to line the front of the parking lot area. The hope is that the cubes will help protect the area until a long-term plan is in place.

The loss of beach is a hot topic at many Southern California beaches as the sea level rises and construction along the coast, and inland, “chokes” sediment from flowing freely down rivers and waterways.

Capistrano Beach, once a sandy haven dotted with volleyball nets and fire rings, has changed much over the years.

“It’s sad to see the whole beach washing away,” McKnight said, looking out to where the workers were setting out the cubes. “I don’t know if it’s global warming or the polar ice caps are melting.”

Her hope for the area?

“That the beach is open again and we can come and enjoy it,” she said. “And it doesn’t keep washing away.”

Kristin Agor, who just moved to the Dana Point area from San Diego, wondered Wednesday about the logic behind putting plastic where waves could cause more damage.

“I feel like over time they might degrade,” she said. “There had to have been some reason, from an environmental standpoint, they decided this would be best.”

Agor said it’s a problem she suspects coastal communities will have to find a solution for — and soon.

“I think in this day and age, they have to figure out what’s going to work,” she said.