Carmen Chu is ready with a question for the mayor over the sand issue

The Answer:

Supervisor chu: our last question to you covered the topic of your commitment to the goals of the ocean beach master plan. A frequent problem in our district has been the

encroaching sand dunes on to the great highway. This past year was particularly problematic, necessitating more

than 65 non-scheduled closures

on the great highway, many for multiple days.

While the department of public works has just completed their annual send maintenance project,

more needs to be done to manage this and both near and long term.

One of the near-term goals of the ocean beach master plan is to work with the national park service and up -- on sand management and relocation. Can you provide an update on the status of the agreement?

Mayor lee: thank you for work on

making the ocean beach something for all of us here.

I was struck by the challenge the encroaching sand dunes are.

I know of this problem firsthand as your former director of

public works and your city administrator, but this year seems to be particularly bad

year force and a buildup along

ocean beach and it has caused a

significant gain in its effort

from the park service and city maintenance crews.

As you mentioned, the great highway was closed for more than

65 days this year due to sand

accumulation and is up 40% this

year over previous years.

however, we are making progress identifying a potential solution to sand management.

The san francisco public utilities commission, the department of public works, and the national parks service have

been working out the details of

relocated approximately 200,000

cubic yards of sand from the northern part of the ocean

beach in front of the sea wall where the sand build up is at

historic levels and transports the mess and to the area of the

beach south of a slope where there has been a significant beach erosion.

The idea is to use the same staff -- the same santa to construct a dune that would serve as a bluff to protect waste water infrastructure.

This is referred to as a soft

solution.

Historically, we have used part revetments in that area but this soft solution is favored by the public and the national park service. It could be a win/win.

We could move sand from one part of the beach where we have too

much to another part where it

could have some real benefits, including protecting some of our

waste water infrastructure being threatened and at the same time

prove public access to the beach at both locations.

Since the city and national park service could cost share, it

could save money while beginning to address the problem.

The park service, along with the severance is the public

utilities commission and dpw have a sketch that with the public -- with the program should look like.

Have sketched out a program to see if there is support for the idea. the next step is to get a series

of approval from the national park service and the california coastal commission.

If people get behind the idea, we could complete the planning

over the summer and move this and in late summer or early fall. I welcome your continued engagement in making this

reality and as far as a long- term solution, I remain

committed to moving it forward a recommendation of the ocean beach master plan.

The proposed Sand Santa will begin at Sl0at and extend to Funst0n.