By: Taylor Hill | Wednesday, June 08, 2011 12:00:00 AM
Last updated: Thursday, June 09, 2011 4:55:00 PM
LONG BEACH -- Beach-goers, environmental activists and surfers who have long called for the reconfiguration of Long Beach’s 2.5-mile long rock breakwater to provide bigger waves and increased water circulation will have to wait even longer. The Army Corps of Engineers released its budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, with no funding approved for breakwater studies.
Long Beach City Council members overwhelmingly approved the $8.3 million feasibility study last year, with the Corps of Engineers agreeing to a cost-sharing agreement to run over four years, to help fund the study.
But, the Corps’ funding has been the subject of repeated federal budget cuts -- decreasing from $5.5 billion in 2010 to $5 billion in 2011 -- and the Corps’ 2012 budget is expected to be decreased to $4.6 billion.
Currently, the breakwater study funds are not included in the preliminary budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in October. But Corps of Engineers officials can continue to pursue funding for the project.
Proponents of an altered Long Beach breakwater believe it would provide cleaner city beaches and swimming areas, due to greater circulation of harbor water, along with improved surf for recreation. Critics have questioned whether shortening the breakwater could make harbor facilities, local boats, shoreside homes and businesses more vulnerable to storm surge and flood damage.
Plans to alter the Long Beach Breakwater have been long and arduous for supporters, starting in July 2007 with the Long Beach Breakwater Reconnaissance Study originally being awarded $100,000 in funding by Long Beach City Council, to find out if there was federal interest in altering the breakwater.
The study included input from more than 100 community members, interviews with dozens of stakeholders and input from consultants Moffatt & Nichols.
Designs included reconfiguring the breakwater to staggered sections and creating gaps allowing for wave action on the shoreline; lowering 1,800 linear feet of the western end of the structure to mean lower low water to provide increased wave transmission; removing the entire western third of the structure (down at least -30 feet) and leaving the eastern structure intact; and realigning the ends of the breakwater by removing an end section, with a new section constructed perpendicular to the existing end of the breakwater.
Alternatives ranged in cost from an estimated $10 million to $310 million.
The delayed feasibility study would determine what environmental and structural effects altering the breakwater would have on San Pedro Bay.
According to supporters of breakwater alteration, the rock breakwater has produced a number of negative impacts in San Pedro Bay, ranging from increased pollution to obstructing natural surf along the Long Beach shoreline.
The breakwall was originally completed in 1949 to protect Navy ships, and was designed to provide a variety of coastal defenses for low-lying property and structures in the area.
According to the Reconnaissance study, an altered breakwater could provide an estimated $50 million in additional beach tourism for the local economy.
News of the funds not being appropriated for the next fiscal year came as Long Beach officials were busy hosting Breakwater Awareness Month activities. City Council member Patrick O’Donnell hosted a social forum at a surf shop on Fourth Street and handed out awards to breakwater reconfiguration advocates. The second annual Paddle Out in Memory of the Waves was held May 21 -- where surfers in support of the breakwater study were encouraged to “come dressed in black or wear your wetsuit to this funeral-themed event to memorialize the death of waves in Long Beach.”
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