Our
View: Sink the breakwater, give LBC
a break
The
city of Long Beach used to have some
awesome qualities that have since faded
into the past. They include the original
Pike, which was a carnival-like beachfront
amusement center similar to what one
can today find in Santa Cruz or at San
Diego’s Mission Beach.
But then something incredibly horrible happened. One of Long Beach’s greatest
attributes was halted. Long Beach became “Wrong Beach,” for surfers
at least. The party stopped.
According to the article “A Break for the Waves” that ran in the
Los Angeles Times August 2005, “a breakwater built in the 1940s neutered
[Long Beach], where the father of wave riding, Duke Kahanamoku, held the first
national surf contest in 1938.”
So wait, no more waves, dude? Wrong beach indeed.
But the tide is turning and the waves may be churning. For the past eight years,
a coalition of supporters including the Long Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation
and the Sierra Club campaigned to modify the breakwater and, ultimately, see
its removal from the harbor.
They succeeded — partially. Last year the Long Beach City Council approved
8-1 to explore submerging the Long Beach breakwater, allowing the aquatic good
times to roll back onto our fair city’s shores.
But there’s no surf’s up yet. Opposition mounts.
Criticism to removing the breakwater is widespread. Port of Long Beach spokesman
Art Wong told the LA Times modifying the breakwater had “potential navigational
hazards.”
“ There might be a slim chance a vessel could run into it, if it wasn’t
clear where the barrier is. We’re also concerned about waves making it
difficult to load and unload cargo,” Wong said.
The Port’s concerns are legitimate but seem far-fetched. The potential
surf spots, like Belmont Shore and downtown, are not closely adjacent to the
port. A misguided vessel venturing that far away from the docks seems unlikely.
Other criticism raised includes a fear of unchecked waves hurting homes on the
Long Beach peninsula and roiling waters for boaters. These concerns also seem
unsubstantiated and resemble fear tactics.
Living near the ocean has its dangers, but Southern California waves are not
tsunamis. Anyone who invests in seaside property should know the hazards before
purchasing.
According to the Long Beach chapter of Surfrider Foundation’s Web site,
coastal flooding is unlikely.
The foundation claims its “research thus far has shown that flooding before
the breakwater was constructed was not a common threat to Long Beach’s
coastal areas.”
The site also said Long Beach has “had more to be concerned with from surge
effects on the Peninsula and potential flooding from the Los Angeles River channel” and
that floods on historical record happened under conditions the current breakwater
could not have prevented. The foundation stresses the breakwater “was not
built to protect the community from flood dangers.”
This is true. The original intent of the breakwater was to help Navy vessels
stationed in Long Beach, but during the mid ’90s, the U.S. Navy left LBC
and the breakwater stayed. It remains useless to this day.
Another benefit to sinking the breakwater would be, believe it or not, helping
the environment. Any decent observation of Long Beach’s waters can easily
find man’s pollution thumbprint, the way his efforts have inevitably altered
(for the worse) our stretch of California coastline.
The LA Times said, “A 1998 study by a Harvard University undergrad concluded
the breakwater actually contributes to erosion by blocking swells and reversing
natural sand movement. The study said removal of the breakwater would also clean
up polluted water.”
In the end, it seems like the benefits outweigh the risks. We don’t risk
taking out a flood prevention device. We don’t hurt the port. We help the
environment.
In addition, Long Beach may give neighboring Huntington Beach a run for its money
as Surf Town, USA. With the breakwater currently in place, residents of LB have
to commute elsewhere to find tasty waves in places like Huntington or, dare we
say, infamously dirty Seal Beach.
Wouldn’t it be great for Long Beach tourism to have people flock to our
sand? We should fill our so-called “beaches,” which today are oddly
empty even on holidays and the summer.
Who knows? We may even discover a brand new species of fish that was miraculously
created in the
Long Beach Harbor by chemicals in the now-dirty-and-could-be-cleaner water if
we sink that breakwater.
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