Artificial reef may restore beach
11/14/02
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
A consortium of local governments from Port Hueneme to Santa Barbara is backing a proposal to build an artificial reef just south of La Conchita.
It's being pitched as a way to restore the beach there and resurrect a now defunct surf spot -- a prospect that has some surfers already imagining endless tube rides on the yet-to-be-approved or built reef.
The proposal, by the private nonprofit Stanley's Reef Foundation of Oxnard, is one of about a dozen proposals now under consideration by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect eroding beaches on the West Coast.
The group, which was formed in 1996, wants to place the artificial reef at the site where two Mobil Oil piers once jutted out into the sea.
"We just see this as an ideal spot," said Gary Ross, executive director of the group.
The organization was named after a a surf break 100 yards south of the two piers. That break was destroyed in 1970 with the construction of Highway 101 and the offramp at Seacliff. A small cafe called Stanley's Diner also was taken out by the freeway construction.
This isn't the first time the group has gone after a federal grant to build the reef, but Mr. Ross said he's confident that the current plan will win approval when the Army Corps makes its decision sometime next month.
While no groups have come forward opposing the plan, some surfers and environmentalists have expressed some trepidation about altering the natural environment any more than it already has been.
Although the national Surfrider Foundation supports the plan, Santa Barbara Surfrider Chapter president Keith Zandona said he was a bit leery about artificial reefs.
"We need to protect the natural surf breaks we already have," he said.
At the same time he was sympathetic to surfers wanting to resurrect breaks, like Stanley's, destroyed without consideration of the environmental costs.
The two oil piers were built in the 1930s and over time they helped catch sand on that portion of the coast, creating a broad beach and a small surf spot just off-shore. When they were removed in 1998, the surf spot disappeared and the beach began to shrink, Mr. Ross said.
"Our project is designed to essentially trap sand, and restore the beach there," he said.
The hollow polyethylene tubes would be arranged in a large Y-shaped reef that would be sunk at the site. The reef would force waves to break offshore, dissipating their energy and trapping sand behind the structure, Mr. Ross said. Sand would eventually enlarge the beach there.
"It also has the added benefit of recreating a surf spot," he said.
If the artificial reef doesn't work it can be easily removed, Mr. Ross said. The total cost of the project would be less than $500,000. Whether his plan is picked out not, the fact that it was endorsed by local governments shows that public agencies are increasingly looking for new ideas to deal with the problem of coastal erosion.
Government agencies are no longer quick to embrace such traditional engineering solutions as building seawalls or rock groins, because they often create new problems of their own.
"The purpose of the federal program is to encourage innovation and shoreline protection," said Kevin Ready, executive director of the regional Beach Erosion Authority for Clean Oceans and Nourishment or BEACON, which supports the proposal.
Made up of government representatives from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties and coastal cities, BEACON is also trying to tackle the perennial problem of beach erosion at Goleta Beach and in Carpinteria.
One idea for protecting Goleta Beach is to "mine" sand from a prehistoric beach now underwater more than a mile offshore and deposit as much as 250,000 cubic yards at the beach.
A similar idea is being considered to protect the beach in Carpinteria, but neither plan is likely to happen for at least the next year or so, Mr. Ready said.
This winter the county plans to build a berm to protect Goleta Beach, and in Carpinteria bulldozers have been used to construct a large sand berm to protect the area from winter waves.
Depositing sand is probably the most benign way of dealing with the beach erosion, but could have unforeseen consequences, said UCSB ocean engineering professor Steve McLean.
"It's the preferred alternative, but its success depends on the nature and the source of the sand," Mr. McLean said.
While beach erosion is a natural seasonal process along the coast, man-made structures -- including dams on coastal rivers and streams, and harbors and seawalls -- can cut off the natural down-coast drift of sand and exacerbate the problem, Mr. McClean said.
There's less material available now to replenish sand-starved beaches. A winter swell can, in one day, scour a beach clean of sand and re-deposit it somewhere else, exposing coastal bluffs and property to pounding surf, Mr. McLean said.
Building an artificial reef to catch sand, may stop erosion and replenish one beach, but it could cause problems down the coast, Mr. McClean said.
