It’s a story of haves and have-nots. Some have more than they need and others have been stripped bare. We speak today not of California’s notorious wealth divide but of our beaches.
A recently published study shows that California’s beaches have grown by a net total of some 500 acres over the last 40 years, a surprising conclusion, given all that’s previously been reported about climate change, rising seas, more severe storms and decreased sediment washing down mostly dammed rivers.
The reasons for the counterintuitive finding are complex and not entirely clear. The total gain reported in research led by U.C. Irvine and the U.S. Geological Survey doesn’t likely coincide with many people’s experience, as they watch their favorite beaches disappear.
That’s for many reasons, including that the beaches that have grown most dramatically mostly lie in Southern California, south of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, with a few stretches of shore adding vast amounts of sand, while many others eroded dramatically. Rich Beach, Poor Beach, if you will.
The study, published in Nature Communications, relies on newly developed satellite-derived measurement methods. Examining beaches from Oregon to Mexico, scientists found moderate overall growth in north state beaches, no trend in Central California and a “highly significant positive trend in beach area“ in Southern California.
Don’t think that means humanity hasn’t had a major impact on the shore. The researchers found that beaches that gained the most sand are near man-made structures like harbors and jetties, along with “natural convergence zones” that trap sediment. You’ve seen this at places like Huntington Beach, Santa Monica, Venice and a less populated stretch between Oxnard and Ventura.
A dramatic pre-dawn stormy sky silhouettes surfers as they look for a good break amid the incoming king tide in Huntington Beach on Jan. 3. King tides are exceptionally high tides that can cause coastal flooding, especially along nearby streets, walkways and low-lying areas.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Your dad didn’t just imagine he had to lug the Boogie board and Igloo cooler farther across the beach than in his youth. “Huntington Beach is 50 or 60 meters wider now than when I was a kid,” said Jonathan Warrick, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center. “A few of these beaches are very efficiently capturing sand.”
A far different reality — a shrinking shoreline — confronts homeowners and the public at places like Broad Beach, near the north end of L.A. County, a celebrity enclave where houses with eight-digit price tags stand precariously close to the waves. The same can be said of the hundreds of homes up-coast from Topanga Canyon that burned in last year’s fire catastrophe. Many famed surf spots to the south — like Doheny, San Clemente and San Onofre — also have seen the beach narrow precipitously. The researchers measured shrinking in that stretch of more than one meter per year.
Mother Nature also plays a significant role. Gary Griggs, a coastal erosion expert at U.C. Santa Cruz, described how a submarine canyon near Point Mugu has been slowly reconfigured (for reasons that aren’t clear) in a way that it effectively swallows up sand previously pushed farther down the coast by currents. The lack of sediment transport has likely caused much of the sand deficit at Broad Beach.
A surfer watches the waves before getting into the ocean in Venice Beach Skate on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Storms have closed roads, triggering flash flood warnings in Southern California.
(Apu Gomes / Getty Images)
Griggs’ own study of the coast two decades ago found that long-term weather cycles largely explained the movement of sand on and off beaches. “Warm or positive periods are characterized by stronger El Niño events, more coastal erosion and damage, and generally narrower beaches,” the researcher said via email. “Cooler or negative periods are characterized by calmer coastal conditions, fewer and weaker El Niños, and generally wider beaches.”
But many factors contribute and they can reinforce, or counteract each other. Take just one example: An El Niño year would tend to generate bigger storms and more erosion. But large storms wash more sediment down creeks and rivers and into the ocean. That builds beaches.
Humans have found that sand replenishment projects can work in the short term. But the tides and the waves keep coming, so no fix is permanent. A news release accompanying the UC Irvine research “acknowledges significant barriers to improved sediment redistribution, including financial costs, regulatory processes, institutional inertia, political boundaries and resistance to change.”
The Palisades fire wiped oceanfront homes off the map in Malibu.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
- Malibu is suing the state of California, the city of Los Angeles, L.A. County and a variety of public agencies, seeking damages for financial losses due to last year’s Palisades fire.
- Malibu officials said the decision was necessary to try to recoup losses that affect “the long-term fiscal implications for Malibu and its taxpayers.”.
- The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to join a federal lawsuit accusing the Los Angeles school district of discriminating against white students.
- LAUSD said the district is committed to helping all students access needed services.
- More than a dozen homeowners and their representatives told The Times that the state insurance department did little to resolve a wide range of complaints in State Farm’s handling of their claims.
- Most of the fire victims said they were left in the dark about their cases, and were told to stop trying to communicate with their complaint handlers.
- Now, they said, State Farm is cutting off prepaid rentals and leases for fire victims who aren’t close to returning home.
- The homes of two writers burned down in Altadena, but they’ll return, ready to write the unincorporated area’s next chapter, writes columnist Steve Lopez.
- Columnist Michael Hiltzik argues the missing quality that defines the flaws in our business and government leadership — Character.
- Yes, Wasserman should go. But news and culture critic Lorraine Ali asks, What about all those other guys in the Epstein files?
(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)
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