Newport Beach leaders are looking to beef up their shoreline protections from coastal flooding ahead of an expected super El Niño after much of the Balboa Peninsula flooded last weekend, with leaders discussing sand replenishment opportunities and other protections.
“There’s a lot of ideas out there, it just costs money,” Councilmember Erik Weigand said during Tuesday’s meeting, adding, “We have to figure out how to pay for it all, but I do think it’s something that we need to do.”
City Manager Seimone Jurjis said the city’s sand berms will be maintained as long as possible, potentially until January after high tides subside. In addition, city staff will also monitor and maintain flood reduction measures and storm water pumping operations.
During a presentation on beach management efforts from last weekend’s flooding from Storm Rachel, Public Works Director Dave Webb warned the city of king tides on Oct. 26 and in late November and December, El Niño and the Kelvin wave.
Webb also said residents must also do their part by reusing sand bags, raising their private sea walls, avoiding driving in flooded streets, and moving cars and personal property to higher ground.
“This is a self-help city, you can’t expect the government is going to solve all of this,” Webb said.
But dozens of residents also pointed out they need the city to take the lead in a disaster.
“At a certain point, there is only so much the residents can do,” said resident Jack Grace during public comment. “I can only fill up so many sand bags.”
Walter Stahr, a candidate for city council, was one of several residents who questioned whether city leaders did enough to prepare for the disaster in the first place.
“Residents of the peninsula deserve an honest answer to the question: ‘Did the council do what it needed to do to protect them ahead of time?’”
During the presentation, Webb said the city was prepared, but the storm created unforeseen circumstances like the tide being nearly two feet higher than expected.
“We did our normal beach prep on things, but this storm that hit us had a combination of a lot of things that we were not expecting,” Webb said.
Councilman Joe Stapleton said Newport did a good job mobilizing equipment within a couple hours.
“A lot of our neighboring coastal communities did not do a good job, and they got hit a way lot harder than we did,” Stapleton said.
Mayor Lauren Kleiman said the city might declare a state of emergency ahead of the October king tides.
Weigand wanted to look into the possibility of adding a ninth rock structure that juts out of the shoreline – also known as groins – designed to trap sand to stabilize shorelines. He also suggested hiring a meteorologist or expert, to check wave forecasts for swells.
“We are running up on a time that’s pretty urgent here, seeing that Oct. 26 is fast approaching and if we’ve got Kelvin energy with those 6.1 tides, I can see parts of our harbor flooding, and we need to be active and try to do something about it,” Weigland said.
Additionally, Councilmember Joe Stapleton suggested using $6 million leftover from the city’s federal dredging project for another sand replenishment project.
The city staff also reviewed other potential long-term efforts, including dredging sand from the harbor, preparing for the future federal sand replenishment project at Surfside-Sunset, repairing their eight groins, and finding another site to pump sand directly onto their beaches
According to Webb, they are seeing sand movement stall in Huntington Beach, so the city is considering excavating sand from the Santa Ana River or possibly the Huntington State Beach.
As nearby coastal towns experience massive sand loss, Newport Beach is slated to get up to 100,000 cubic yards of sand from the Santa Ana River, anticipated to start next month, which is expected to cost up to $2 million.
It comes as Orange County Transportation Authority plans to distribute sand to OC beaches in June 2027 as Seal Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point and San Clemente
Nearly every coastal city in the county is struggling with beach erosion from tropical storms this year – ahead of the expected impacts from El Niño.
According to Webb, city crews built higher than normal sand berms through the weekend, using sand mined from the Santa Ana River.
During the presentation, Webb said wind, waves, tides, swells and lateral currents affect beach erosion. He also said Newport Beach has ‘fine sand,’ which is harder to keep on their beaches.
Stapleton said this is only the beginning.
“Keep your sand bags. We’re not done with this.”
Lauren Contreras is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. You can reach her at laurencontreras615@gmail.com.
