More sand coming to Carlsbad’s beaches

The Carlsbad City Council approved an amendment to an existing agreement Tuesday with the San Diego Association of Governments to restore sand to the county’s beaches, including two in Carlsbad. As a result, several beaches will be blanketed with new sand drawn from the ocean floor as part of a regional project to keep San Diego County’s beaches beautiful.

 

In July, the San Diego Association of Governments, known as SANDAG, will begin the Regional Beach Sand Project II, which will restore 1.4 million cubic yards of sand to beaches in five cities, from Imperial Beach in the south to Oceanside in the north.

 

Two Carlsbad beaches will get a total of 340,000 cubic yards from the project — the beach between Encina Creek and Palomar Airport Road in southern Carlsbad, and the beach between Carlsbad Village Drive and the Buena Vista Lagoon in northern Carlsbad.

 

The sand will be transported from offshore sources using a large dredge vessel. Then it will be piped onto the beach where work crews will spread and grade it.

 

The California Department of Boating and Waterways is the major funder of the restoration project, contributing $19.5 million, or 85 percent of the total cost. The cities receiving the sand are contributing the remainder.

 

The SANDAG project, which will end in October, is one of three sand replenishment projects that will help Carlsbad beaches this year.

 

The state of California Department of Fish and Game is about to complete a maintenance project that removed 118,000 cubic yards of sand from Batiquitos Lagoon and spread it on the beach south of the lagoon mouth. The sand was distributed partially in Encinitas and partially in Carlsbad.

 

And beginning in December, NRG Cabrillo Power Operations, Inc., which owns and operates the Encina Power Station, will perform its biennial maintenance dredging at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Approximately 350,000 cubic yards of sand will be removed from that lagoon’s floor to be placed on the beach north and south of Tamarack Avenue.

 

“We’re getting the benefit of a lot of sand this year,” said Steve Jantz, an associate engineer who monitors beaches and lagoons for the city.

 

Contact Steve Jantz at 760-434-2838 or steve.jantz@carlsbadca.gov

Kristina Ray, 760-434-2957, kristina.ray@carlsbadca.gov