Switch to fall is expected to improve navigation and keep sand on beaches longer
Sand from the annual Oceanside Harbor dredging is pumped onto the beach just south of the municipal pier in April 2025. After decades of dredging the Oceanside Harbor channel every spring and placing the sand on nearby beaches, a majority of the Oceanside City Council has agreed to try a change.
The City Council directed staffers Wednesday to proceed with plans to move the annual maintenance routine to the fall, a switch recommended by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the city’s Coastal Zone Administrator Jayme Timberlake and local scientists. Technical studies show dredging in the fall would help keep the harbor channel clear of sand for boaters, Timberlake said. Also, the sediment removed and placed on beaches would be less likely to move north back into the channel, where it becomes a hazard, and instead would be carried south along the eroded coastline. Traditionally, the job has been done in the weeks preceding Memorial Day weekend, making northern Oceanside’s beaches wider for the start of the summer tourist season. The Corps of Engineers is responsible for the dredging and pays a contractor to do the work. This year, the channel would be cleared twice, once in the spring and again in the fall, to facilitate the transition. “The idea is not new,” Timberlake said. “Over 25 years, studies have been done by the Corps of Engineers and the city.” The change has always faced opposition. Some people worry that sand placed on the beaches in the fall is more likely to be washed away by winter storms. Tourism and recreational programs could suffer. However, multiple studies indicate that placing the sand in the fall will better protect the beaches and coastal development from high tides and large waves. Also, doing the work in the fall allows a more predictable schedule for the contractor because there are fewer storm delays and environmental concerns such as the well-known grunion runs. The results will be closely monitored, Timberlake said, and the city can revert to the former schedule if the change is unsatisfactory.“Please do not give up our spring dredge schedule,” Krammer told the council. “We will lose our sand in the winter with north swells, and nothing will be left for spring and summer tourist season. There is a lot to consider with a change in dredge schedule.” One of the region’s biggest surfing events, the Super Girl competition at the Oceanside Municipal Pier in September, as well as other events could conflict with the schedule change, she said. Summer programs such as junior lifeguard training need wide beaches. Other residents, scientists and representatives of the local group Save Oceanside Sand spoke or submitted letters in favor of the change. More than 70 years of coastal studies show that when and where the sand is placed “has a measurable influence on whether that material has a lasting shoreline benefit or is rapidly lost back into the harbor entrance or offshore,” states a letter from coastal engineer Christopher O’Day at the Carlsbad consulting firm Moffat & Nichol. “Spring dredging and near-harbor placement are poorly aligned with the dominant sediment transport processes,” O’Day said. “Both historic records and recent monitoring indicate that fall placement, followed by winter wave conditions, offers the best opportunity for dredged materials to move southward and persist on chronically eroded beaches in South Oceanside,” he said. Coastal oceanographer Reinhard Flick of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a noted expert in the field, also wrote in favor of the change. “In my opinion, shifting the dredging scheduled to fall is long overdue,” Flick said. “Spring placement puts sand right back into the harbor in summer and deprives beaches south of the pier of sand, perpetuating chronic shortages in South Oceanside.” Mayor Esther Sanchez said she still worries that the replenished sand will be lost in the winter, that businesses will suffer, and recreational opportunities will be lost. She said she could not approve the change “without a better backup plan.”“This practice we’ve been doing goes back to the ’60s, and we’re in this mess,” said Councilmember Rick Robinson. “It’s way past time to make a change.”“It’s always enlightening to learn about the complicated system of sand transport,” Joyce said. The Oceanside harbor was built in the 1960s and shares an entrance with the small marina at Camp Pendleton that was created when the Marine Corps base opened in 1942.Settlement reached to control ‘nurdles’ released along San Diego railroadHer paintings are a trap, to draw you into the details and keep you therePadres begin spring with a familiar roster — and a new set of uncertaintiesThe Santana High shooter may win release. Other young offenders know what he faces.
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