For years, residents of this Southern California beach town could walk a mile along a stretch of cream-colored sand and dip their toes in the waves lapping ashore.
uncertain
residents → walk → waves
That trip has been cut short.
Coastal erosion has been eating away at the beach in San Clemente, known for nearly a century as a “Spanish village by the sea.”
asserted
erosion → cut → sea
The rising sea and crashing waves have pushed the shoreline landward, splitting the city’s picturesque North Beach.
asserted
sea → rise → Beach
Crumbling seaside bluffs have damaged oceanfront homes and forced the repeated closure of a passenger rail line considered the second busiest in the country.
asserted
bluffs → crumble → country
It’s one of many California coastal communities grappling with the effects of sea level rise.
asserted
It → ’ → rise
Nearly a decade ago, scientists forecast that more than half of Southern California’s beaches could significantly erode by 2100, radically altering how people live and recreate along the state’s famed coast.
uncertain
people → forecast → coast
“The constant pressure is sea level rise,” said Sean Vitousek, research oceanographer with the U.S. Geological Survey.
asserted
Vitousek → say → Survey
“It is going to keep rising, and rising, and the beaches will retreat landward.”
asserted
beaches → go → ?
After years of erosion, California is bracing for flooding and landslides ahead of this year’s expected super El Niño, a temporary warming in parts of the equatorial Pacific known to warp weather worldwide.
asserted
California → brace → weather
Already this year, the town of Pacifica south of San Francisco shuttered its cracked concrete pier, and seawater flooded homes in Long Beach near Los Angeles during a hurricane-driven storm surge.
asserted
seawater → shutter → surge
A recent study showed that El Niño events are getting stronger because of human-caused climate change.
asserted
events → show → change
In San Clemente, a town of 62,000 people, urban development has slowed the flow of sediment that once nourished the city’s beaches, and warmer ocean waters have pushed waves higher and further ashore.
asserted
waters → slow → waves
It’s become so challenging that residents of the largely Republican city are considering taxing themselves to raise money for beach restoration.
asserted
residents → become → restoration
A measure to add a 1% sales tax to fund wildfire protection and sand replenishment in San Clemente is on the November ballot.
asserted
measure → add → ballot
Crumbling hillsides disrupt seaside rail
asserted
hillsides → crumble → rail
Over the past five years, the rail line that has operated along the coast for more than a century has faced repeated closures due to encroaching surf on one side and fragile bluffs on the other.
asserted
that → operate → other
The 7-mile (11-kilometer) segment is part of a 351-mile (565-kilometer) passenger rail corridor that links San Diego with Los Angeles County’s huge port complex and San Luis Obispo.
asserted
that → link → complex
It’s also used by freight and the military.
asserted
It → use → freight
Transportation officials have shored up the tracks to ensure passenger safety by laying down rock.
asserted
officials → shore → rock
But as waves slam against the rocks, they sweep more sand offshore and speed up erosion that will eventually threaten the rail line again.
asserted
that → slam → line
Locals say the erosion is dramatically altering their community.
asserted
erosion → say → community
“We’ve lost our walkable beach,” said Cameron Cosgrove, a San Clemente resident who wrote the tax measure.
asserted
who → lose → measure
“It used to be you could come to North Beach, walk the beach trail, or on the beach to the pier and actually all the way down to the south end of town.
uncertain
you → use → town
City and transit officials agree more sand is needed and note that coastal communities, including surf hub Huntington Beach, have nourished their beaches for years.
asserted
communities → agree → years
Opponents of the measure want sand — but not the tax — and argue San Clemente should work with other communities on a regional approach.
asserted
Clemente → want → approach
“Fighting Mother Nature is very expensive,” said City Councilman Zhen Wu, who opposes the measure.
asserted
who → fight → measure
City Manager Andy Hall said San Clemente faces a sand deficit of about 3 million cubic yards.
asserted
Clemente → say → yards
Getting that much sand to the beach is no easy task, he said, adding that trucking it would require 300,000 trips.
asserted
trucking → get → trips
Darrell Johnson, chief executive of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said a challenge has been getting state permits for more sand.
asserted
challenge → say → sand
He hopes California’s recent emergency declaration ahead of El Niño will speed up the process.
asserted
declaration → hop → process
In the long run, Johnson said officials will study moving trains inland — an idea previously deemed too costly.
asserted
officials → say → trains
A third option is to halt the line, he said.
asserted
he → halt → line
“If we can’t figure out how to shore up properly in a way that is long-term in nature, and we can’t figure out how to relocate, I think that is a question that’s going to have to be asked,” Johnson said.
asserted
Johnson → figure → nature
“‘What happens to passenger rail? What happens to freight?’”
asserted
What → happen → freight
More sand will also shape wave breaks
Further south, transportation officials have been working to stabilize coastal bluffs to shore up the rail line in the community of Del Mar.
asserted
officials → shape → community
The plan is to eventually move the tracks, but officials have not decided where.
asserted
officials → move → tracks
Charlie Fox, a 56-year-old San Clemente resident and marine meteorologist, said sand provides a critical buffer between whatever structures — train tracks, homes, lifeguard headquarters — are built along the coast.
asserted
structures → say → coast
The lifelong surfer said sand also helps waves roll gently onshore, creating a steady wave break for surfing.
asserted
waves → say → surfing
On a recent morning, surfers bobbed in the water off North Beach, not far from the rocky structure shoring up the train tracks by the sea.
asserted
surfers → bob → sea
“When you see those rocks, that’s them attempting to fight the ocean,” Fox said.
asserted
Fox → see → ocean
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
