BEACH EROSION STUDIES 



Beach erosion control studies of specific localities are usually made 

 by the Corps of Bngineers in cooperation with appropriate agencies of the 

 various States by authority of Section 2 of the River and Harbor Act 

 approved 3 July 1930. By executive ruling the costs of these studies are 

 divided equally between the United States and the cooperating agencies. 

 Information concerning the initiation of a cooperative study may be ob- 

 tained from any District or Division Engineer of the Corps of Engineers. 

 After a report on a cooperative study has been transmitted to Congress, a 

 summary thereof is included in the next issue of this Bulletin. Summaries 

 of reports transmitted to Congress since the last issue of the Bulletin 

 and lists of completed and authorized cooperative studies follow. 



SUMMARIBS OP REPORTS TRANSMITTED TO CONGRESS 

 SAN DIEGO COUNTY. CALIFORNIA 



The purposes of the investigation were to determine the causes and most 

 suitable methods of controlling erosion of the shores of San Diego County, 

 California. An interim report on the same shores (B.E.B. Bulletin, Vol. 10, 

 1956) considered the more urgent problems at Oceanside, Ocean Beach, Imperial 

 Beach, and Coronado. This study also included, as directed by Congress, a 

 survey of Camp Pendleton Harbor and Oceanside, California with a view to 

 determining the extent of Federal aid which should be granted toward recom- 

 mended beach erosion control measures at Oceanside in equity without regard 

 to limitations of Federal law applicable to beach erosion control. 



San Diego County is in Southern California immediately north of the 

 Mexican boundary. Its Pacific Ocean shore line, extending in a general 

 north-south direction*, is about 75 miles long. The coastal area consists 

 generally of a series of long narrow beaches backed by bluffs and steep 

 hills, except that at Mission and San Diego Bays it consists of low sandy 

 peninsulas separating the ocean from those bays. The coastal area of the 

 northern half of the county is drained by short, steep, intermittent streams. 

 In the southern half, the drainage was formerly into Mission and San Diego 

 Bays, except for the Tia Juana River which discharges into the ocean about 

 1-1/2 miles north of the Mexican border. Since 1951 San Diego River dis- 

 charges directly into the ocean through a separate flood channel adjacent 

 to the entrance to Mission Bay. 



The City of Oceanside with a population of about 20,500 is in the north- 

 ern part of San Diego County about 18 miles south of the north county line. 

 It has an ocean frontage of about 3 miles, characterized by bluffs 20 to 40 

 feet high fronted by a narrow beach. Of the shore frontage requiring pro- 

 tection, a section about 10,000 feet in length is owned by the city; the 

 remainder is privately owned. The center of Oceanside is about 2 miles south 

 of the entrance to the Federal (Navy Department) harbor at Camp Pendleton. 

 That harbor consists of an inner basin 20 feet deep. Jetties at the entrance 

 were built in 1943 and the north jetty was extended southward to overlap the 



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