OCEANS IDS, OCEAN BEACH, IMPERIAL BEACH AND CORONADO, SAN DIEGO 

 COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



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 70 miles long. The coastal area consists 

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

 bluffs, 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 l| miles north of the Mexican border. Since 1951 San 

 Diego River discharges directly into the ocean through a separate flood 

 channel adjacent to the entrance to Mission Bay. 



The City of Ocean side with a population of about 18,400 is in the 

 northern part of San Diego County about 18 miles south of the north 

 -ounty line. It has an ocean frontage of about 3 miles, characterized 

 oy bluffs 20 to 40 feet high fronted by a narrow beach. The shore front- 

 age requiring protection, about 10,000 feet in length, is owned by the 

 city. The center of Oceanside is about 2 miles south of the entrance 

 to the Federal harbor at Camp Pendleton. That harbor consists of an 

 inner basin about 33 acres in area and 20 feet in depth. The entrance 

 is protected by converging jetties. Due to littoral drift and small 

 tidal prism, the maintenance requirements of the entrance channel have 

 been excessive and the entrance is now practically closed. The dominant 

 littoral drift is from north to south. The problem at Oceanside is one 

 of shore recession over the past 13 years due to impoundment of littoral 

 drift at the harbor jetties which were completed in 1943. The rate of 

 recession is probably decreasing as the limit of impounding capacity of 

 the jetties is approached, but the city frontage is presently without an 

 adequate protective and recreational beach and shore front property is 

 endangered. Erosion is continuing, though at a diminishing rate. 

 Restoration and maintenance of the beach are desired.- 



Ocean Beach, a part of the City of San Diego, is a residential 

 community with a population of about 34,800. It is located on the 

 ocean about 5 miles west of the city*s business center. Most of the 

 community is on high ground with a beach about \ mile long lying between 

 the Mission Bay-San Diego River jetties on the north and Sunset Cliffs 

 on the south. The shore is owned by the City of San Diego. Since 

 construction of the Mission Bay jetties in 1948 to 1950, Ocean Beach 

 has become a pocket beach between Sunset Cliffs and those jetties. The 

 beach has reoriented, the material moving northward to form a beach at 

 the northern portion of the pocket and across the mouth of San Diego 

 River. The southern portion lacks an adequate protective or recreational 

 beach. Local interests desire restoration and stabilization of this 

 beach. 



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