SFPUC Ocean Beach Temporary Erosion Management

This CDP is to temporarily allow the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to use “soft structures” to help with erosion control at Ocean Beach over the next six years while preparing to implement the long-term managed retreat solution to the erosion threat. Ocean Beach, and particularly the Sloat Blvd. area, has experienced serious erosion problems over the years. In 1996, the beach protecting the road, a parking lot and a wastewater lines completed washed away. The first of a series of emergency rock revetments was constructed. Despite a few sand backpassing projects, the shoreline south of Sloat continued to erode. During the last El Nino Winter of 2010, a portion of the coastal road (the Great Highway) collapsed onto the beach.

The sand relocation component of the project will involve the excavation of up to 100,000 cubic yards of sand per year from the northern reach of Ocean Beach. This excavated sand would be placed within an approximately 0.5-mile stretch extending south from Sloat Boulevard and immediately to the west of the bluff edge. Additionally, sandbags would be installed prior to or during the storm season if a sufficient erosion notch develops in the bluff such that it intrudes upon the Great Highway and related public infrastructure.

The project is explicitly temporary to manage the issue of erosion the area faces while progress is made toward the long term solution for which an annual report will be submitted to the Executive Director for review, identifying progress made toward implementation of the long-term solution.

This project is a good example of multiple agencies working together towards difficult but sustainable erosion adaptation measures. Managed retreat is not an easy nor streamlined measure – it’s an action that takes time and intense coordinating with all stakeholders. During the time that this coordination and progress to the long-term goal takes place, erosion and extreme weather events will still be occurring in an area that was doomed from the start; issues must be managed in the meantime.

Surfrider spoke at the hearing, inquiring about the “annual” backpassing (sand relocation) that is discussed, and it was confirmed at the hearing by Commission Staff that “annual” is a ceiling and not simply a generalization of incidence.