Time to Pass the Torch

Greetings Surfriders,

For the last nine years I have been privileged to lead the Restore Sloat Campaign for the Surfrider Foundation’s San Francisco Chapter.

It’s time to pass the torch.

First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you who has helped this campaign in any way – from signing our petitions to attending public meetings to spreading the word about our efforts. I also want to give a shout out to those who just pick up trash when they go to the beach.  You all are helping to defend and restore Ocean Beach.

We have achieved a lot since the 2010 El Niño. At that point, SFDPW was ready to bury the entire Sloat shoreline under a pile of quarry stone boulders. We fought that misguided plan at the Coastal Commission and won. 

In the ensuing years we worked with our government agencies and the community to help shape a new erosion policy for Sloat – one that will lead to the restoration of our beach.  

There is much to be proud of.  Again, thank you all.

At the same time, our work is unfinished.

Key items we have left to secure include: 

1: A new parking lot replace the main / north parking access

2: Phase II project details which maximize the area of shoreline restoration (especially the removal of all rock and rubble from the beach and artificial bluff)

3: An ironclad commitment to replenish the beach in the wake of major erosion events

Once again, thanks for your continued engagement through this very long process. The finish line is finally coming into our sights. 

Let’s see this thing through to the end.  

Sincerely yours,

Bill McLaughlin

Phase One of Managed Retreat Project Clears SF Planning

King Tides on 12-23-18 occurred under mild weather and wave conditions. 

Luckily they did not coincide with some of the potent winter storms we have experienced since mid-January or erosion of the sand backless work would have been extremely severe.

Greetings Surfriders,

We recently learned that the road consolidation and realignment project has been approved for CEQA processing at SF Planning.  An article appeared in a recent issue of SF Weekly. This is good news as the phase one project of managed retreat has been delayed now for nearly two years.  The bad news is that there is no funding currently available.  We will certainly be following up on the funding issue.

In the mean time, your comment letters on behalf of this issue are still welcome!  If you haven't written a letter yet, please do so now! The key decision-makers over the erosion site need to hear how important beach parking is at Sloat - both in the Phase and the Phase Two managed retreat projects.

Here is a sample letter:

To: David.Froehlich@sfdpw.org
cc: NorthCentralCoast@coastal.ca.gov, aaron.peskin@sfgov.org, phil.ginsburg@sfgov.org, bgrant@spur.org, brian_aviles@nps.gov, gordon.mar@sfgov.org

Dear Decision-makers of the Sloat erosion site,

My name is _______________ and I __________ (surf, hike, fish, enjoy, etc) Ocean Beach.  While I support the restoration plan for the erosion site south of Sloat, the upcoming road realignment work should include additional beach access parking using the abandoned lanes until a new long-term parking lot can be built.

Parking access south of Sloat is critical for beach access. Originally, our two parking lots provided 200 spaces.  Currently, the south parking access has been completely lost to erosion while the north lot has only 29 parking spaces left. This is inadequate. We need parking addressed at Sloat both for the Phase One and Phase Two Ocean Beach Master Plan projects.

Thank you.  _____________

(your name, address)

Thanks always for your engagement!

King Tides and Future Shoreline Boundaries

Most of Pacifica’s beaches are already on life support. 

Over a foot of sea level rise will probably drown whatever is left of this once sandy shoreline.

Greetings Surfriders,

There was is another king tide on Monday January 21st Martin Luther King Day. We have a 7.1ft high tide at 10:53am (GG Bridge gauge) / apprx. 10:33am at Ocean Beach. This will be our largest high tide of the year.

King Tides are significant because they give us a glimpse into the future of sea level rise and what will our shoreline boundaries may look like.

How does this work? Currently, the average large high tide (what NOAA calls the mean higher high tide) is 5.84 ft. for the Golden Gate / SF Bay entrance tide gauge. https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/datums.html?id=9414290

Monday’s 7.1ft king tide will therefore be 1.26ft or about 15” above our average large high tide. By 2050, the state of California projects there to be 16” of sea level rise. So Monday’s king tide will be close to the predicted new sea level rise average large high tide for 2050.

You can help us spread awareness of the impact of sea level rise on our beaches. Just take some photos of your favorite stretch of shoreline around 10:30am (again the tides arrive :20 mins earler on the beach compared to the Golden Gate).  Then, send the pics in to the Ca King Tides Project and share them with your friends on social media. Please be sure to copy a link to our sea level rise planning petition! https://secured.surfrider.org/action/engagement?actionId=AR0024609&id=701i00000018YoU

 Thanks.

Ca King Tides Project website:

https://www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides/