San Clemente Mayor Rick Loeffler said he was thrilled Thursday that recent state legislation is helping the beach town secure an extra $1 million for sand replenishment at North Beach.
The council told City Manager Andy Hall last week to use $1 million in city funds to find the most sand at the lowest cost; now Hall will have some extra money to use.
“Instead of putting $1 million on the beach, we’re going to be looking at scooping up $2 million of sand and put it up at North Beach,” Loeffler said of the state funding secured by Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, and announced Thursday.
The sand will be dumped at the beach ahead of the anticipated Super El Niño that could wreak havoc and shift sand from the town’s already scarce supply. The city already declared a state of emergency ahead of the anticipated fall and winter storms.
The city also needs to put maintenance money toward its pier, but a recent inspection by an engineer found it is structurally sound, so the sand replenishment is the priority, Loeffler said.
“If we can put some sand on North Beach, it will protect North Beach and hopefully migrate toward Capistrano Shores,” he said.
Strickland, who announced the surprise funding on Thursday, said in a statement that the “$1 million will help put sand back where it belongs while supporting critical infrastructure,” including the rail line where it runs beachfront through San Clemente.
“Our beaches and coastal infrastructure are important to communities in Orange County,” he said. “They provide families with places to enjoy the outdoors, support local businesses, and help connect our communities. We must do everything we can to protect them.”
Loeffler said Strickland had been talking to city leaders about using some of his discretionary funds in his Senate district to help meet the city’s sand replenishment and infrastructure needs.
“He said if (Gov. Gavin) Newsom signs the budget, he’ll give us $1 million and made that pledge,” Loeffler said, adding that the city didn’t know it would actually happen until a few days ago and voted last week to take the $1 million from other monies that would have been allocated for a future sand replenishment plan. “We were hoping, but there was no promise.”
Now, Loeffler said it will be up to Hall to find the sand.
“If we get it from the Prado Dam, it will be free; if we have to source it from a quarry, it’s gonna cost some money,” he said, adding that the more expensive part is transporting the sand. “Most of these trucks run on diesel fuel. It’s going to have to be: How much is the transport cost, what’s the source of the sand going to cost? Then we can figure out how many cubic yards of sand we can put on for that $2 million.”