Reposted from The Press Telegram - http://www.presstelegram.com/rss/ci_18114422?source=rss
More than 75 ride out to support plan to alter or remove seawall.
Posted: 05/21/2011 09:14:37 PM PDT
Updated: 05/22/2011 12:55:00 PM PDT
LONG BEACH — More than 75 people took to the sea Saturday in the latest effort to gain support and awareness of a longtime plan to alter or remove the massive breakwater off the city's coast.
The 2.5-mile seawall, built in wartime 1940s to protect the Navy's Pacific fleet from rough waters and submarine attacks, has become the target in recent years of community groups concerned its presence is devastating tourism and the environment.
Running roughly parallel to the city's coastline two miles offshore, the breakwater blocks natural wave action and is blamed for exacerbating the harbor's pollution problems.
"This (seawall) is bad for the environment and bad for tourism," said Long Beach Councilman Patrick O'Donnell, who helped organize the event with the Surfriders Foundation and area tourism officials.
"By blocking any wave action, it's creating an unnatural environment. People wanting waves to surf on, or to swim in, they see the condition of our (harbor) and they just go to other local beaches.
Meanwhile, we lose unknown thousands of potential visitors."
Saturday's event near Belmont Shore was based on the Hawaiian tradition of paddling into the ocean and forming a prayer circle in memoriam.
But it also served as a call-to-arms for breakwater reconfiguration advocates to redouble their efforts concerning a planned four-year study of the seawall's impact on tourism, water quality and safety.
Breakwater advocates were alarmed by recent news that an $8.3 million agreement between Long Beach and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the rock wall has been temporarily halted amid cutbacks by the federal government.
In early May, the Army Corps' proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget was cut by nearly $1 billion. Though Congress has yet to approve the budget, it so far doesn't include the $4 million-plus approved in late 2010 for the federal portion of the study.
"It's just going to make us all work that much harder," O'Donnell said. "We're not paddling away from this issue."
A 2008 study funded in part by the city estimated tourism spending would increase by about $52 million annually if the seawall were removed or altered.
Around the same time, the Army Corps reported that enhanced natural wave action through reconfiguration could improve property values, downtown commercial values, parking revenues and beach visits, all augmenting the local economy.
However, even though federal funding has been apparently pulled through Fiscal Year 2012, local Army Corps officials say they're still pushing for funding.
"We were unable to get the necessary federal funding to move that study forward," Jay Field, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles, said May 18. "(But) we're working to get it included in the president's budget for FY12. That project does remain one of our important projects that should be funded and continue to be worked on."
Despite the public show of support Saturday, part of "Breakwater Awareness Month," opponents fear altering the wall could lead to flooding or other impacts at homes in the low-lying Naples area in southeastern Long Beach and potentially at the Port of Long Beach.
More events are scheduled through month's end.
To learn more or to voice your opinion, go to visitwww.lbsurf www.longbeach.gov
/district4 or call 562-590-6920. kristopher.hanson@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1466
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