4.6 Land and Water Use
With the movement of replenished beach sand through the littoral processes, offshore bars could develop
over time, thereby affecting surf breaks (i.e., beach breaks). Some sediment accumulation is anticipated
in reef areas, however, natural transport processes move sediments through these reef areas under normal
conditions. Changes in the formation of offshore sandbars is a naturally occurring event, and there are
seasonal periodic changes to surfing localities. This project would not have a significant, long-term impact
to surfing.
Once the receiver sites have been replenished, recreation activities would resume and be enhanced.
Replenishment would create additional recreational beach area as calculated in Appendix C. Following
replenishment, an estimated 85 acres of new recreational area would be created. It should be noted that
the benefit is also temporary. At the majority of locations, the added recreation beach would either not
persist for five years, or added beach area would be less than one acre after five years. Where beach area
would be created, an estimated 252 acres of recreational beach currently exists. Post-construction, total
recreational beach area would be approximately 378 acres.
No direct impacts would occur to the City of Encinitas Marine Life Refuge because there would be no sand
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placement. Potential impacts to reefs and biological resources in the vicinity are discussed in Section 4.4.
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Finally, the replenishment action would not preclude the viability of any planned land use, either onshore
or offshore.
Borrow Sites
At all proposed borrow sites, kelp harvesting operations would not be affected. The borrow locations have
been specifically sited to avoid these resources. For information on impacts to kelp, refer to Section 4.4
(Biological Resources). For information on impacts to commercial fishing, refer to Section 4.8.
Whale watching activities would not be adversely affected near any of the proposed borrow sites. As
described in Section 4.4 (Biological Resources), marine mammals such as whales would not be adversely
affected. Therefore, the dredging and replenishment operations would not negatively affect whale watching
operations.
Regional Beach Sand Project EIR/EA
Page 4.6-3
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