3.5 Cultural Resources
The outbreak of World War II brought increased Naval activities throughout San Diego waters and
adjacent shore. From 1941 to 1971 military activities were conducted at Imperial Beach. Gunnery
practice, artillery observation, and aviation operations took place. To the north, amphibious landings were
practiced near Oceanside.
San Diego Bay continued to develop as a port. Constant dredging since 1911 allowed larger ships to enter
into the bay. The completion of the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal provided off-loading facilities for large
cargo ships.
Receiver Sites
The 13 receiver sites are beaches located between south Oceanside and Imperial Beach. When the Navy
evaluated 10 of the receiver sites proposed under the previously permitted project, impacts to
archaeological sites from the placement of sand were determined to be beneficial (Department of the Navy
1995, 1997a, 1997b). Therefore, detailed cultural resource analysis of other receiver sites proposed under
the project was not undertaken.
Borrow Sites
It is possible that submerged (and buried) cultural resources would be preserved incertain offshore subtidal
environments. Based on the model used in the current study, the high probability for prehistoric site
preservation is predicted to be at the contact of marsh sediments with streams or rivers. These would be
the oldest associations. Older sites would be most likely to occur within marsh habitats and the most recent
sites within lagoon habitat. Probability assessments are made based on the likelihoo d of occurrence,
detection, preservation, and recoverability of both prehistoric and historic cultural resources. This
approach is based on the Mineral Management Service (MMS) method utilized to assess submerged (and
often buried) areas for cultural resource sensitivity. The following provides a discussion of the affected
environment for the six borrow sites.
As in the Geology and Soils description (Section 3.1), this text provides an overview of the larger borrow
site rectangle which was originally investigated for sand suitability (Sea Surveyor 1999 and Appendix C).
The "grid" is larger than the dredge area by a factor of two to 25. For example, the grid at SS-1 is over
650 acres, but the dredge area would be under 25 acres.
Page 3.5-6
Regional Beach Sand Project EIR/EA
99-69\SANDAG EIREA 3.5 to 3.12.wpd 7/17/00
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