Dredger Arrives Offshore for Surfside Sand Project

SEAL BEACH —  Surfside residents rejoiced Friday as a large dredger anchored off their beach to begin the final phase of a $7.7-million sand-replenishment project that was delayed for more than a year.

“It’s there, and this is very good news,” said Surfside resident Richard Maul, a retired ship’s captain.

Maul and other residents said that a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent weeks setting up thousands of yards of pipe that will transport 1.6 million cubic yards of sand from beneath the sea to the beach, starting as soon as today.

It is expected that enough sand will be pumped in Surfside’s northern area to extend the beach seaward nearly a quarter mile.

The contractor, New Jersey-based Weeks Marine, has three months to complete the work.

The dredger, which is actually called a hopper, will trail large scoopers about a mile and a half offshore. The scoopers will dump sand into the ship’s hold, where pumps will send the sand through a pipeline and onto the beach.

It is the corps’ only large, long-term sand-replenishment project in California.

Resident Gino Salegui, who helped mount a campaign with other local residents for the project, was happy but cautious.

“I see that the pipes are all set . . . and it looks like they’re ready,” Salegui said. “It’s good news, but I’m not going to do anything until I actually see the dredge putting sand on the beach.”

The project was delayed for more than a year because of the Orange County bankruptcy, which made funding uncertain. The project is being paid for by the state, the Army Corps of Engineers, the county and Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Newport Beach.

To build up beaches along the coast, the corps replenishes sand at Surfside every five or six years.

Surfside is a “feeder” beach that helps distribute sand to southern beaches, replenishing Sunset Beach, Bolsa Chica State Beach, Huntington City Beach, Huntington State Beach, and the shores of Newport Beach.

Beach erosion began occurring when a jetty at Anaheim Bay was built by the corps in the 1940s during construction of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The jetty blocks natural sand movement, so sand that’s washed away from beaches is not replaced.

During delays, high tides and large surf stripped away protective sand, exposing large boulders that provided Surfside’s last defense against the tide.

Two years ago, Seal Beach had to truck in 18,000 cubic yards of sand as part of a $220,000 operation to protect the beach and homes.

Last year, when beach sand was stripped away, the city fortified a sea wall with bulldozers, which cost another $50,000.

At first, Weeks Marine planned to sail a dredger from the East Coast and begin dredging by mid-November. But to the dismay of homeowners, those plans collapsed and the contractor then hired a West Coast dredging company that could not begin until this week.