My Belmont Heights - Surfrider Foundation - Comments

Misleading comments about the Breakwater

Mike Stewart — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:00:38 -0500

I didnt mean to mislead in my previous post. It's why I provided the links to my sources on the web. My intention isn't to push a particular view as much as to debunk some local myth's. Both for and against. But I'd prefer to ge it right, so if you know of something else, please let me know... I will correct the post.

The water quality search is factual... I'm not sure what is misleading. I didn't imply anything other than do the search yourself. The really good news here is the culprit of some of the most contaminated water may finally have been identified (in short: seems to be storm drain pumps and sprinkler runoff ...in the dry summer following the driest year on record, go figure).

I misquoted the value of the rocks in terms of square feet - it should have been linear feet. I did provide the link to the CSULB 49ers article.

Breakwater

Michael Hewitt — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:20:21 -0500

I'm undecided on the breakwater and looking forward to the results of a study - providing it's a genuinely neutral study and not one that is predetermined to advance the arguments of one side or the other.

Mike Stewart's comments contain some misleading and erroneous information.

First, following his link to "worse beachwater in California" does say that Long Beach recently fared poorly, but reading the articles shows that that is an exception. Quoting from one:

"Long Beach has traditionally fared well in the Beach Report Card despite the fact its beaches are completely enclosed by a breakwater. Typically, beaches located inside a breakwall are more prone to poor water quality than open ocean beaches, but this has not been an issue for Long Beach except at Colorado Lagoon."

Second, $1 million a square foot? Rocks aren't sold by the square foot. Cubic feet maybe? Even so, the value quoted is utterly absurd. It would be cheaper to use gold. Perhaps you meant $1 million total.

More talk on the Breakwater

Mike Stewart — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:51:54 -0500

There's been lot's of talk about the breakwater lately. What have you heard? How Strongly do you feel about this Issue? What do you know about it? Share your opinion, by taking our poll -it's on the front page...

I'd like this to be "the place" for an open and honest discussion on the topic... Please join in.

In no particular order, here's some intersting tid bit's.. please add to them, post your thoughts, did I get something wrong? Let me know.

Try a searching google for the phrase "worse beachwater in california" (or just click on that link, to see LIVE results yourself). Today, the first story that came up on my search was this: http://www.physorg.com/news81005911.html. I guess the good news is at least Long Beach is number one! Ouch.
The breakwater was finished two years AFTER World War II - for the Navy - which no longer has a base here.
The Peninsula existed before the breakwater - much of which was finished by 1903-1907 - nearly 40-50 years before the breakwater was built.
Sand errosion on the Peninsula has been worse since the breakwater was installed. I've heard budget number of $200,000 eavery year just to move sand from the north end of Long Beach to the Peninsula.
Not all options require full removal of the breakwater in order to have positve effects. One option is removal of just a portion of the breakwater and reconfiguring in order to provide for natural sand replinshment and cleaner water. Water safe enough to actually wade or swim in - click the link above to learn of our bay's e-coli problem!
The breakwater is outside Long Beach Port's jurisdiction... It seems this would mean the focus on clean water in the port will not involve considering any effects of the breakwater.
The breakwater will cost money to reconfigure - but some options include selling the breakwater stones, which are valued by as much as $1,000,000 per square foot.

Other Interesting Stuff:

CSULB- Daily 49er - Comprehensive Article on the subject

About Naples History

Click on the keyword "breakwater" on any post (like the story above), to find everything posted with the "breakwater" keyword.