Orange County officials are ready to start a massive reinforcement project to protect beaches and rail lines from catastrophic erosion. The last major obstacle: permitting.
Beach areas in San Clemente were devastated by storms over the past three years, which have washed away soil beneath critical rail lines that run along the coastline. OC Supervisor Katrina Foley says the issue is in need of a permanent fix.
“So we put together the study, we identified 4 hot spots, and then we came up with a plan to bring 540,000 cubic yards of sand on the ocean side and then a catchment wall on the land side where we saw that there was some potential for a landslide if we had another extreme weather event,” she told KNX News’ Pete Demetriou.
The county lined up cash and contractors to reinforce the selected areas. The only obstacle now is getting permits from the California Coastal Commission.
“We have $300 million in funding from the federal and state governments, and now we're just stuck in a lot of red tape bureaucracy for the permits,” Foley said.”So we have a plan now that we’re putting forward to the Coastal Commission to get a permit for expediting sand nourishment and we hope that it's successful.”
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Foley is hoping Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials take action to fix the permitting delays. The county is fighting the clock to get the work done before next winter, when another round of storms could lead to irreparable damage.
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