Sand Plan Could Put Waves to Sleep

To a surfer, nothing is quite as beautiful as a frothing, curling, spine-tingling ocean wave.

But in Carlsbad, that great natural sight could soon become a thing of the past, according to D. Dwight Worden, a San Diego land-use attorney who’s no stranger to surfing.

Ironically, a plan to enhance wildlife habitat and improve the beaches could ultimately, in Worden’s view, endanger surfer habitat.

He and other surfers fear that a proposal to dump large quantities of sand dredged from nearby Batiquitos Lagoon onto the city’s bare beaches will ruin surfing conditions.

“As far as we’re concerned, a particularly good surf break is a natural habitat and by law deserves to be protected,” Worden said. “They’ve done everything for endangered species like the fringe-toed lizard and the least Bell’s vireo. . . . They’ve rerouted whole freeways to preserve that small bird’s habitat.

“We’re out to remind people that the law requires that concerns about surfing environments be addressed as well,” Worden said.

Preserving Quality of Waves

Worden is representing the Surfrider Foundation, a Huntington Beach-based organization that advocates preserving the quality of waves and beaches.

The foundation, which has about 2,000 members, including those from Hawaii and the East Coast, says the city is building an excessively large beach that will stunt surfing conditions for several years.

The foundation plans to voice its objection at public hearings that will be held to review the project’s environmental impact report, which is tentatively set to be released in January.

But so far, the surfers are fighting a lonely battle. The Batiquitos Lagoon Enhancement Project, as it is officially known, is receiving favorable reviews from many quarters.

The project’s initial purpose is to dredge as many as 5 million cubic yards of sediment to restore tidal flushing and enhance wildlife habitats in the lagoon, according to Gary Wayne, a senior Carlsbad planner.

The project proposal recommends that this sand be dumped at two principal locations: at the mouth of the lagoon, by an area called Encinas Creek, and along South Carlsbad State Beach, also known as Ponto Beach.

If successful, the project will do more than just enhance the lagoon, supporters say. Coastal residents who have long mourned their beaches’ woeful condition say they’ll be able to lie on sand instead of cobblestones.

“For years we’ve been wanting to put sand on the beach, but we haven’t been able to get a good supply, and we surely don’t want to pay for sand from somewhere else,” said Carlsbad City Councilwoman Ann Kulchin, a strong advocate for beach replenishment. “The sand from Batiquitos Lagoon is a wonderful boon for us.

“Our beaches need to be nourished down there,” said Kulchin, who endorses the lagoon project enthusiastically. “Right now, Ponto Beach is so bare. You can’t walk on it . . . nothing but cobbles. I realize that eventually it might wash away, but at least we’ll get to enjoy it while we have it.”

Kulchin said she was unaware of the Surfrider Foundation’s objections and declined to counter their specific arguments.

Inaccurate Stereotype

Worden and other surfers, however, promise that their concerns will soon be heard.

For too long, surfers have endured an inaccurate stereotype that has branded them as “rag-tag dudes with long hair,” Worden said. Often, their concerns are brushed aside or forgotten by government bureaucrats.

“Surfers aren’t just a bunch of high-school kids,” he said. “There’s a lot of doctors and lawyers, like me, who surf.

“Whenever you undertake a project that may do harm to a sensitive environment or an endangered species, by law, the California Coastal Act requires you to do everything possible to mitigate the adverse effects,” Worden said. “But when it comes to protecting the surfing environment, nobody seems to notice.”

The city plans to dump only 114,000 cubic yards of sand at Encinas Creek, said city planner Wayne. But he added that the bulk of the sand, 1 million to 3 million cubic yards, would be dumped along a mile stretch of Ponto Beach, extending the width of that shoreline to nearly 600 feet.

So much sand dumped at once will dramatically alter the shoreline’s profile and stunt wave formation, said Tom Pratte, the foundation’s executive director.

And Pratte says he can’t understand the city’s desire to build such an enormous beach.

“Do you know how long 500 to 600 feet is?” Pratte asked. “That’s the length of two football fields placed end to end. That’s ridiculous.”

Pratte thinks a 200-foot beach is more than sufficient to meet recreational needs. “Who needs a beach that’s so wide that you have to be Lawrence of Arabia to get to the shoreline?”

The foundation offers a compromise that recommends building a beach 200 to 300 feet wide, and dumping the rest of the sand in mounds 10 to 15 feet underwater. Pratte claims such mounds will actually improve surfing conditions.

However, Carlsbad planners aren’t convinced the city’s plan will indeed ruin surfing conditions.

“Anytime you change the profile of the beach face, you have the ability to affect the pattern of incoming waves, but I’m not sure that we’re going to adversely affect it,” Wayne said.

“I think there is quite a bit of sympathy for surfing,” Wayne said. “I believe it’s a valid form of recreation. Hey, I’m a surfer, too. And I don’t want to see surf spots eliminated. But we need to nourish the beaches.”

But surfers aren’t the only ones who are questioning how successful the beach replenishment program will be.

Scott Jenkins, a coastal engineer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, also has doubts about dumping all the sand on the shoreline.

“Dumping more than 3 million cubic yards all at one time is more than that beach can handle,” Jenkins said. “It is an abnormally large amount. You will be building a river delta more than a beach. I think it’s just a waste of sand because most of it will wash away.”

Jenkins and a colleague were actually the first to propose using the dredged sand from Batiquitos Lagoon to replenish Carlsbad’s eroding beaches. But Jenkins said Carlsbad planners have deviated from the proposal he initially offered.

Jenkins said the original plan called for making sand dunes behind the high-tide line. During storms or high waves, sand would trickle down from the dunes in a progressive, avalanche process and gradually nourish the beach, he explained.

“Unlike the city’s plan, in which sand would be spread out and constantly exposed to the ocean, sand would only be mobile during storm conditions under the dune plan,” Jenkins said. “If you spread it out all at once, the sand won’t last nearly as long.”

Under the Carlsbad plan, the sand would last for about five years, he said. If the city were to follow the dune plan, Jenkins said, the beach’s life span would likely double.

“Scientifically, it’s difficult to find reasons to support dumping the sand all at once,” he said. “Maybe politics is involved. I guess politicians have to show immediate results.”

But Jenkins isn’t critical only of the city’s plans. He said the surfing foundation’s plans are flawed as well.

“It’s questionable whether the mounds they’re proposing will actually improve surfing conditions,” Jenkins said. “Besides, it would be very difficult and very expensive to build them.” Barges would be needed to cart the sand into deep water, or a costly underwater pipeline would be needed to build such mounds, he said.

Although many questions still surround the plans submitted by both sides, foundation lawyer Worden said only one question is really at issue.

“Is the beach just for those people who want to lie in the sun and never get wet?”