Orange County’s Spanish Village by the Sea is facing a big problem.
The iconic coastline that gave San Clemente its name is vanishing, and the local transportation agency could be speeding up the process by protecting train tracks.
City leaders have been trying for decades to get more sand on the beach, with plans to restart a project next month headed by the Army Corps of Engineers that could bring two million cubic yards of sand back to the area surrounding the pier over the next 50 years.
The project was put on hold after city officials noticed the sand they were bringing in was too rocky, but city staff now say they’ve identified a new source of sand and are waiting on approval from the State Lands Commission.
As city officials push ahead with sand replenishment, the Orange County Transportation Authority is struggling to keep the San Clemente stretch of the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train above water – and out from under landslides, which have caused a series of recent closures.
Now, transportation agency staff are floating a proposal to dump rocks dubbed riprap along the tracks’ edge.
[Read: Transportation Officials Discuss Future of OC’s Collapsing Coastal Railway]
In a meeting on March 11, transportation agency staff laid out new plans to protect the tracks, which have frequently collapsed due to erosion over the past two years and cost over $37 million in repairs.
“There’s not going to be one solution that will fix everything,” said Dan Phu, a program manager at the transportation authority. “We’re combating challenges on both the seaward side and the inland side, it makes it an extremely challenging situation.”
Those plans largely included more armoring of the coast, with Phu mentioning they’d focus on bringing in more sand once the rail line was stabilized.
Eric Carpenter, a spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement to Voice of OC that no final decisions had been made on what the future repairs for the rail line looked like.
“It’s very important for the public to understand there are no specific projects proposed at this time,” Carpenter wrote. “We are hearing the input from San Clemente and from many others. The study and the approach to addressing the hot spots will continue to evolve with input from stakeholders as we move forward.”
San Clemente Prepares Beach Fight
While riprap can help temporarily block the train lines from taking any more damage, it also could speed up the erosion of the surrounding beaches, something San Clemente City Council members and staff unanimously agreed on Tuesday night can’t happen.
Councilman Chris Duncan said it was time to “lay down the gauntlet” to the transportation authority’s leadership.
“Let OCTA know that San Clemente as a community is not going to accept rocking and armoring of our shoreline to the detriment or loss of the beach,” Duncan said. “If they’re going to have something in San Clemente we better show up.”
The discussion came as city leaders were reviewing a draft of their new Coastal Strategic Plan, which is aimed at launching more construction projects to replenish sand along the beach and figure out ways to fund sand replenishment efforts.
While the council didn’t take any action on Tuesday night, city manager Andy Hall proposed bringing forward a city ordinance that would require any future armoring of the coast also include more sand.
“We understand that railroad’s got to sit … on something,” Hall said. “I think we should pass an ordinance that at least makes people recognize when you come to San Clemente if armoring is required, you ought to be able to protect that armoring with sand on the beach.”
Who Should Bring the Sand?
Supervisor Katrina Foley also raised concerns about continuing to armor the coast at the Transportation Authority board meeting, suggesting the board should instead look at bringing sand to the coast or setting up a regional sand bank to have it on hand when needed.
But Hall criticized the Coastal Commission program of a sand bank at Tuesday night’s meeting, saying they didn’t need to put sand in a vault or discuss where else it could go when it’s needed on San Clemente’s coast.
“It won’t necessarily come to San Clemente,” Hall said. “I don’t want to see money go into some accounts where no one knows where that sand is going to end up.”
On Tuesday, San Clemente Mayor Victor Cabral said the goal for now is to open up more lines of communication with the transportation authority to make sure they knew what San Clemente was after.
“We want sand on our beach, not rocks,” Cabral said. “We’re out there advocating for this.”
This article was updated to reflect the sand bank is a state Coastal Commission program
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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