Since I couldn’t make the Board of Supervisor’s meeting on the Sloat erosion issue, I’m republishing the post by Carolynn Box of the SF Surfrider Foundation from the Sloat erosion blog. Save the Waves has also put out a press release about the meeting, here: http://www.savethewaves.org/news/view/109.
Here’s the post from the SF Surfrider Blog:
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors (BOS) reviewed Item #53 Proclamation of Local Emergency at Ocean Beach (South of Sloat) at approximately 7:15PM last night. Yes, it was late and the BOS was tired but proved themselves to be professional and gave Item #53 its required attention.
A crew from the San Francisco Surfrider Foundation Chapter and Save the Waves Coalition, and Lara Trupelli, the Chair of the 2000-2005 OB Taskforce and the Ocean Beach Vision Council, spoke to the BOS regarding concerns with the short-term solutions that the SF Department of Public Works (DPW) has proposed. The DPW proposes the placement of riprap (rock) along 900-feet of Ocean Beach’s shoreline (three football fields in length). The rock is proposed to protect the Great Highway from erosion and prevent additional coastal erosion around a sewage pipeline that is 40-feet under the Great Highway —
BUT this rock WILL NOT protect Ocean Beach – it will degrade the beach and likely cause more erosion issues in the area.
Surfrider, Save the Waves and Ms. Trupelli spoke quickly (each person had two-minutes only) to express the issues with the current proposal and made suggestions for what the BOS could do. Ideas had been being thrown out all day: can the current emergency proclamation be amended to include clauses limiting the type of solution? Can the decision be postponed so that there is more time to evaluate other options?
The crew got up and professionally and heartfully explained that the coastal erosion issues had not been appropriately addressed over the last 10-years by the DPW and the OB Taskforce recommendations had not been fully incorporated into planning, and ROCKS ON THE BEACH would only cause additional problems. So it was suggested to the BOS to re-evaluate the option of using sandbags (this was one of the options that DPW evaluated) and not use hard structures. The crew encouraged the BOS to delay the decision so that more thought could go into the options.
Supervisor Ross Mirkarini led the discussion with the BOS and expressed concerns with the proposed short-term solution (thank you!!!). For clarity, the importance of the declaration of emergency by Mayor Newsom is that there is potential state funding available for reimbursement for “emergencies.” So, obviously, the BOS did not want to mess with the City of SF getting additional funding – SF is BROKE.
So, in the end, it comes down to $. The City of SF has about 2M $ available to control the erosion at Sloat – just enough to fund the rock placement (the other options are more expensive). The BOS declared the situation an emergency and the DPW has to return next Tuesday for a follow-up hearing with the BOS. DPW has agreed not to start work until after they return to the BOS next week. This gives us ONE WEEK to do the following:
(1) Determine if the cost estimates are accurate for the proposed rock placement
(2) Determine cost estimates for sandbag placement (does the whole 900-feet of the shoreline really need to protected – or can we use sandbags in the most critical areas)
(3) Understand the existing permitting requirements at Sloat (what do past Coastal Commission permits require or prevent?)
(4) Get the BOS to give additional guidance to the DPW (based on the fact that past ordinances did not allow rock, a long-term strategy should be developed, and the recommendations of the OB Taskforce should be looked at!)
Last night the BOS realized that SLOAT erosion is a problem. This was an accomplishment!
More information to come…
AND IF YOU WANT TO COMMENT
or have expertise in the area
please email:
oceanbeach@beachchalet.com
-and-
erosionOB@gmail.com
Related posts:
I am responding to the summary above…
I was at the Board of Supervisor’s meeting and attended the town meeting at the Beach Chalet and I am not that encouraged about how this is all going to play out.
Politically I believe that the “emergency” is going to trump a lot of good arguments that might be made about the rock revetment. The supervisors & city are going to need the matching funds from the declaration of emergency and that sets a timeline that will with (artificial?) urgency overwhelm many good and reasonable ideas. Having been involved in federal & local politics in the past I can see the witches brew well mixed to build the 900′ of rock revetment over the objections of many of us…
I believe that “the process” leading to the revetment is well ahead of our organizing efforts at this time.
I believe that we are following a common pattern in these matters
- Emergency develops due to lack of long term leadership
- Emergency response is fast tracked
- Community Resistance (usually with long term interests) manifests
- Political leaders engage community (usually by listening & asking “though” questions of “staff”) with earnestness (note Supervisor Chu…)
- Emergency response moves forward with the political lament that if only we’d “__________.”
(usually an appeal for greater leadership in the past & promises (empty) to do more in future)
(Note that Supervisor Elsbernd adopted this approach in his engagement with Mirkarimi)
- Bad short term emergency fix is done
(many political tears shed along with claims of “we listened but….)
- Long term issues & concerns are again placed on the back burner…
(politically appointed staff (Reiskin?) & politicians have short planning horizons)
- repeat (a lot…)
So I am concerned that we are being played by political leaders on this…
I suspect, in the end, Supervisor Mirkarimi will either vote in favor of the revetment (with a lot of deep sighs and protestations) or recuse himself citing his membership on the Coastal Commission… But even if he votes not to build the revetment (highly doubtful) he will do so knowing that the board is going to go ahead anyway. (Note: Supervisor Daly said he thought the votes were there to go forward at the meeting that night and I’d trust his vote counting)
I want to suggest the following strategy:
~ Agree to a rock revetment for only the most critical 200′ – 300′ feet of bluff to protect the emergency area (smaller is better of course).
1. Agree that this will not last as long or work as well as 900′ BUT that it will get us through the emergency
2. Because the smaller revetment is highly problematic & doomed to failure (only faster than the larger 900′) this keeps the fire on all the stakeholders to come up with a long term solution rather than a medium term “kick the can down the road” solution.
3. Claim the high ground
- This protects critical infrastructure
- This addresses the “emergency”
- This is not DPW’s solution but it addresses their concerns in the short term (El Nino)
- This forces the stakeholders to stay engaged and work for a long term solution (right now!)
- This is leadership by citizens asking for Supervisor support (which they all claim to want)
- This gives something and asks for something so we are not “winning” and DPW is not losing
4. Engage in the politics of Supervisor (insert name) does not lead, plan for the long term, and avoids the hard choices (add more as you like) the results of which we see in high cost bandaid failures… (this is the stick)
All the best,
Rev.MCC
Has the BOS made a final decision on this?
Riprap on beaches does nothing to protect the beach. It may protect the bluff behind the beach but as for the beach, everywhere I have seen rocks dumped the beach eventually disappears, causing the rocks to sink and necessitating the placement of more and more rocks until there is finally so much rock that they eventually stop sinking into the undermined sand. But the beach never returns and we usually end up with a deep channel running parallel to the beach instead of the sand that used to be there.
For examples just look at areas of Sharp Park north of the pier, Rockaway in front of Nick’s and the beach immediately south of the jetty in Princeton, and the area in question at OB. Ever since someone got the bright idea of dumping crap concrete to save the bluff the beach has been disappearing. For those of us old enough to remember, there USED to be full beaches at each one of those areas prior to the concrete and rocks being dumped there.
Bummer dude. Still crowded no matter what.
Too bad all the organizations were busy having parties and art shows, stroking each other, when they should have seen this coming for how many years??? Decades????????
Thatʻs a lot of question marks. While we were “stroking each other” years went by where everyone who surfed was sun baked and oblivious to what might happen next…
Hereʻs what you people should do: Carve out a river and let the water from Lake Merced drain out to Ocean Beach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWcPCZ54K4E&feature=related this is BVB
One day I took a trip in my car
And went straight down Golden State
And went to the beach
But when I got there I just want to cry
Cuz there were so many people
I didn’t know what to do
Cuz every time I go there
My board gets covered with oil
Every time I go there
Some hodad steals my wax
And when I get on top of those
The guy he cuts me off
Why do they cut me off
There’s stupid idiots in the water
They keep cut me off
There’s too many surfers
I wanna kill myself
You know…
I hate surfing at OB
Hate surfing at OB
Hate surfing at OB
The chicks are jerks
The guys think their so cool
They just look at each other
And always try and steal the surf
But not on my wave this time buddy
I’m gonna push you down
I’m gonna take the wave
That wave is, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine
You’re not gonna take it from me
Cuz I’ve got it
I’m getting in there
I’m in the tube, boy I’m really getting off
I’m getting off
I’m surfing this is fucking cool
I hate surfing in OB
Hate surfing in OB
Hate surfing if the waves are always shitty
Ohh… well we can always go to the beach party and find girls
Hey… Isn’t, isn’t that Bad Vibe floating in the shore break.
Have a nice summer everyone! Interesting articles in the most recent SURFER about L.A. and S.F..
See!, I am not so crazy after all.
I am selling you out.
Just donʻt call it “art.”