Blundering Gavin Newsom’s plan to combat ‘super’ El Nino is set to DESTROY California’s beautiful beaches, experts say

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to protect coastal residences from a super El Nino is being bashed for potentially destroying the Golden State’s beloved beaches.

With California’s coast set to be drowned by monster waves in El Nino, residents and government leaders are turning to big rocks and seawalls to protect homes.

A statement released by the governor’s office last week stated that the state will be allowed to ‘move faster to protect communities, stage critical resources, and strengthen readiness before severe weather intensifies.’

Since then, the coastline is being armed with man-made barricades made out of rocks, seawalls, concrete and wood to keep water tamed.

But experts have warned that this defensive strategy is only of short-term benefit and might instead harm sandy beaches in the future and even contribute to impacts on the coast that could linger far beyond this stormy season.

Jonathan Warrick from the US Geological Survey told the LA Times: ‘It’s kind of a double-edged sword, where it may have some short-term benefits, but long-term, there’s a lot of work showing that some of those protection measures can have negative effects – both at the site, and immediately adjacent to the site.’

Tension between immediate coastal protections from rising sea levels and the future harm they might cause are becoming a growing concern.

In Dana Point, south of the ritzy surf town Laguna Beach, coastal homeowners have rushed to install protections like a boulder barrier, according to a statement from the city.

KTLA-TV recently broadcast a video of workers pouring concrete near the shoreline to protect beach homes.

In addition to the houses, a coastal railroad line carrying $1 billion in freight each year has long been at risk of falling into the ocean. 

A project, called riprap, from last year that was meant to stop soil erosion and absorb the crashing energy of water, was seen losing sediment near the train tracks that fell into the ocean this month.

The efforts immediately put in place may protect structures in the short term, but they are also contributing to the disappearance of California’s sandy stretches, which are being squeezed between a rising ocean and seawalls.

Chief executive of the coastal and ocean conservation organization Surfrider Foundation, Chad Nelsen warned that seawalls or other barriers drawing firm lines on the shore leave no more space for sand.

‘Sea walls and revetments and rock riprap can temporarily protect homes and public infrastructure like the train tracks, but they ultimately destroy the beach,’ Nelson told the LA Times.

‘We’re making a trade-off between protecting the property and infrastructure for the public’s beach.’

The US Geological Survey said in 2017 that California might lose up to two-thirds of its beaches by the end of this century if the sea level rises three to six feet. 

The coastal city of Pacifica, near San Francisco, already lost a beach that existed in the 1970s to a mostly armored coastline.

A partial solution for some areas is to import sand to strengthen eroding beaches, but that can be very expensive.

Nelsen told the LA Times: ‘One of the questions is, if we’re going to spend state and federal money to replenish the beaches, is that fair that the homeowners get free public protection in front of their homes at all of our costs?

‘At some point, it’ll be probably cheaper to try to buy out the homes than to put sand on the beach forever, because these beach nourishment projects, beach replenishment projects, they’re tens of millions of dollars.’

Issues of coastal erosion, bluff movement, landslides, hight tides, storms and ocean swells have collectively disrupted a trainline from San Diego to Orange County for up to a full year in the past five years, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The agency told the LA Times it has been working on solutions to protect the rail line for the next three decades, while a separate state-led effort looks at solutions beyond that time.

Some concepts include sand placement and, depending on location, more heavily engineered interventions such as seawalls or rock.

‘More than $300 million in state, federal and local funding has been secured for those priority rail protection efforts. Sand placement is also a significant component of this effort,’ the authority said.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley acknowledged that rocks aren’t the perfect solution, but they are often the only option for emergencies.

‘We know the rocks that they have to keep adding out there are exacerbating the sand erosion, but we have to do that to protect the rails,’ she told the LA Times.

Recent hits to beaches were a result of strong swells from hurricanes in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Warrick said, as well as abnormally high tides.

Another factors is the roughly one-foot increase in sea levels along the California coast over the last 125 years caused by human-made global warming.

The Daily Mail contacted Gavin Newsom’s office for comment.