Executive Summary
The proposed Regional Beach Sand Project proposes placement of less total material (2 million vs. 5.5
million cy) over generally the same receiver sites as the Navy's permitted project. The proposed project
does differ in that the sand source has changed from dredged material in San Diego Bay to dredged
material fromsix offshore borrow sites, and additional receiver site locations have been added. Table ES-1
provides a comparison between the Homeporting project which was permitted and partially implemented,
and the alternative under the Regional Beach Sand Project with the maximum number of receiver sites.
ES-2 PURPOSE AND NEED
The purpose of the proposed beach replenishment project is to replenish beaches in accordance with the
request submitted to the Navy by SANDAG's Shoreline Erosion Committee (SEC) in 1996. The 1993
Shoreline Preservation Strategy for the San Diego Region (SANDAG 1993) identified regional coastal
areas with critical shoreline erosion problems. The Shoreline Preservation Strategy is a strategy with a
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menu of solutions to address shoreline erosion including beach building by placing large amounts of sand
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on eroded beaches, structures such as groin fields to help hold sand in place, structures such as seawalls
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and sand berms to protect property, and policies and regulations regarding the use of the shoreline and its
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development such as bluff top building setbacks. Further, these tactics are divided into regional scale
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actions (beach building, redistributing sand via groins, breakwaters, etc.) and local scale methods (requiring
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setbacks, bluff top erosion management via irrigation controls, seawalls and revetments). The SEC has
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used this strategy as a basis for identifying up to 13 receiver sites which have experienced erosion and need
replenishment. The proposed action would provide immediate benefit by placing suitable beach fill directly
onto the region's beaches rather than placing some of it in the nearshore zone. The proposed action would
serve four main functions: 1) to replenish the three littoral cells and receiver sites with suitable beach sand;
2) to provide enhanced recreationalopportunities and access at the receiver sites; 3) to enhance the tourism
potential of the San Diego region; and 4) to increase protection of public property and infrastructure.
As the project has evolved, it has become apparent that predicting sand movement in the highly dynamic
ocean system is difficult. Another project feature is to establish replenishment sites which can be useful in
evaluating the predictions of the state-of-the-art modeling used in this process and thereby assist with any
future beach replenishment efforts in the region.
ES-3 PROPOSED ACTION
The proposed action is beach replenishment of the San Diego region's eroding beaches using
approximately 2 million cy of dredged sediment from six offshore borrow sites. The project was originally
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Regional Beach Sand Project EIR/EA
99-69\SANDAG EIREA es.wpd 7/17/00
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