Making A Bigger Beach, Inch By Inch

Now In Action: The Ross Island Dredge No. 10 Is Pumping Beach Quality Native Sands From San Elijo Lagoon’s Central Basin To Cardiff State Beach.

This is the first glance of new sands from the lagoon pumped to Cardiff State Beach to widen and replenish our cherished coastline.

Our weather has been unsettled lately, yet sand delivery to Cardiff State Beach began as planned. Conservancy Executive Director & Principal Scientist Doug Gibson joined us at the coast to explain how this beach replenishment process is moving along. Doug had completed an interview with news reporter Phil Diehl of the San Diego Union-Tribune and shared some insights in this video below.

Doug Gibson: “Here we are at Cardiff State Beach—at the inlet to San Elijo Lagoon. This is Phase I. This is the start of the restoration project, Reviving Your Wetlands, where sand is coming out on the beach to nourish this stretch of beach from Cardiff Reef down to Seaside.

We’ll be placing sand as you can see coming out of the pipe. This will be filled all the way down the beach. Once that’s done, we’ll be fusing more pipe together and bringing sand down to Fletcher Cove, and finally to offshore. Once that happens the overdredge pit inside the lagoon will be ready to start receiving lagoon sediments, and the dredges and operations will go out into the lagoon channels.

We can put that sediment then back into the pit and get ready for that sand cap to put on top of it—to revive your wetland—and be done and out of here and have our system restoring itself into the future.”

Sands are being placed on the beach in 500 linear feet segments just south of Pacific Coast Grill. The native sand mixture is an approximate 20% sand and 80% water mixture with the consistency like that of a smoothie.

Not all sands look the same. What’s coming from the overdredge Pit (far left in hand) are native sands. In the other hand are sands currently on the beach, in part, from prior replenishment projects.

Thank you for following Lagoon Connections, the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy blog for Reviving Your Wetlands lagoon restoration. Share your questions. Invite friends, neighbors and colleagues to follow as we keep you up-to-date on the actions underway for healthier waters, habitats and in the near future—new trail connections.