The Orange County Transportation Authority drafted a report entitled “Coastal Rail Resiliency Study Initial Assessment Technical Memorandum” (CRRSIATM) in January 2024 and only formally presented it to the OCTA Board of Directors on March 11, 2024. In the report, it is revealed that the OCTA plan to keep trains running on the beaches in San Clemente and Dana Point will mostly consist of dropping tons of riprap boulders, scientifically identified to obiterate beaches. Riprap is mentioned 54 times in the report. Solutions involving sand are mentioned only 9 times, mostly as a reference to what others are doing. Estimates of this “plan” to be executed through the upcoming summer are $200 million. Boulders are already staged in San Clemente. The CRRSIATM is explicit that it will seek to evade all environmental assessments in order to prevent shutdowns next winter. Yet, a process for public input is taking place only once each month in March, April and May.
When is a listening session not a listening session? When you make a plan without consulting stakeholders. In the time since the Directors of OCTA received copies of the CRRSIATM, it has become obvious that OCTA isn’t really interested in the beaches of south Orange County or their stakeholders. How?
1) If OCTA had been interested, it would have gathered input before publishing the memorandum.
2) If OCTA had been interested, it would have actively engaged with all previously identified stakeholders in its listening sessions. Capo Cares representatives came all the way from South County in mid-November to speak to the OCTA Board at its November 13 meeting. Before that meeting, we sent photographs of the landslide devastation that had already taken place due to the combination of train vibrations and heavy rains. Nevertheless, we only learned of the CRRSIATM from a State Senator’s Office on March 5. We spoke again in Orange on March 11. Nevertheless, we only learned of a “listening session” to be held on March 20 the day before and were specifically not invited in advance to be panelists. That listening session was held during daytime hours when most adults are working. Clearly, OCTA is deliberately handpicking from whom it wants to hear and minimizing participation. Most of the public never learned of the meeting at all.
3) If OCTA had been interested, the CRRSIATM would have discussed how riprap causes beach loss and the need for OCTA to address sand replinishment itself, acknowledging the damage of its own actions, instead of handwaving at current and historical efforts directed at sand replenishment and mentioning “regional solutions.” The devastation of hard armoring is a commonly known, scientifically supported phenomenon, described by the Coastal Commission as long as a decade ago.
4) If OCTA had been interested, OCTA Program Manager Dan Phu, seemingly in denial, would not have been quoted at the March 11 meeting saying, “I think what we want to do is have enough information before we can make a judgement on whether or not rip rap causes beach erosion.”
5) If OCTA had been interested, leaving the “listening sesson” on March 20th, participants would not have seen riprap boulders already staged by OCTA near the beaches.
There’s an expression that goes; when you have a hammer, every problem seems like a nail. That could seem to be the excuse for the agency’s repeated, unimaginative assault of riprap. Unfortunately, aggressively seeking to circumvent environmental assessments, as described in the CRRSIATM, clearly demonstrates that the agency is aware it is wreaking havoc on south Orange County beaches.
In reality, waiting for such assessments would help to identify the true future costs of all repairs, which will dwarf the $200 million currently proposed. OCTA’s Board should not buy this $200 million bandaid. There are more just like it hiding right behind it. It should insist on critical environmental assessments before taking action. It should understand the total costs, to the environment and in real dollars, to keep the trains running on the beaches. Whether or not OCTA is listening, residents are clear: if it comes down to a contest between trains and beaches, the beaches of Orange County must be preserved for future generations. Train tracks can be relocated; the coastline cannot.
“OCTA is holding its last public Listening Session on its Coastal Rail Resiliency Resiliency Study Initial Assessment plans for San Clemente on Thursday, May 30th, at 5:00 pm at San Clemente City Hall.”
Laurie Girand is an 18-year resident of San Juan Capistrano, a former candidate for Assembly District 74 and a member of Capo Cares, an advocacy group for the community of Capistrano Beach in the City of Dana Point. Since 2014, Capo Cares has followed issues of interest to community members, such as coastal erosion, beautification, public health and safety, local politics and arts and cultural events. The group updates the community via periodic newsletters and daily postings at www.Facebook.com/capocares.
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