$32M FOR N. COUNTY COASTAL PROJECTS FROM U.S.

Oceanside shoreline study, beach sand replenishing funded

A long-sidelined Oceanside shoreline study and a 50year Encinitas-Solana Beach sand replenishment project together will get more than $32 million in federal funding, Rep. Mike Levin said Wednesday.

“I am thrilled to announce the bipartisan infrastructure law is delivering funding for two critical projects that will help protect local beaches from dangerous erosion,” said Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, in a news release.

“Funding for the Encinitas-Solana Beach project will allow us to place more than a million cubic yards of sand along our beaches, which will reduce erosion of coastal bluffs, improve public safety, and expand all of the recreational benefits that come with larger sandy beaches,” he said.

“Funding for the long-delayed Oceanside Special Shoreline Study will similarly advance efforts to restore local beaches that have been negatively affected by the construction of Camp Pendleton Harbor.”

Originally expected to be finished in three years, the partially completed Oceanside study was suspended in 2017 when funding dried up for the project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked Oceanside to contribute $1 million to continue the work, but the city had no money to spare.

The shoreline study by the Corps of Engineers is separate from studies for a pilot sand restoration and retention project approved last year by the Oceanside City Council.

“These are two independent studies with a different focus, different objectives and different goals,” Oceanside Public Works Director Hamid Bahadori said Wednesday.

Oceanside’s study is looking at ways to restore and retain sand, with a focus on the possibility of building rock groins or a reef to retain sand on the beach. Also in the plan is a bypass system to carry sand through pipes around the harbor and the Camp Pendleton boat basin to beaches south of the pier.

The Corps of Engineers’