Seawall at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach approved by Coastal Commission

The California Coastal Commission has approved a project to build a more than 3,000-foot-long buried seawall along the southern portion of Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Headed by San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the project looks to protect a massive underground sewage tunnel and a nearby wastewater plant from beach erosion.

Anna Roche with SFPUC told the commission, without the seawall the tunnel could be severely damaged.

“As you can see from these two photos it’s large enough to drive a truck through,” Roche said. “If this tunnel were to fail it would result in a major emergency for this side of San Francisco. Failure would mean hundreds of thousands of gallons of combined storm water and sewage spilling onto Ocean Beach and hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans unable to flush their toilets.”

Not everyone is convinced a seawall is the right solution to protecting this infrastructure.

Nina Atkind is with the Surfrider Foundation, an organization that works to protect coastlines. The group said the seawall is only a temporary fix.

As sea levels rise, they said the city will be forced to eventually relocate the wastewater infrastructure. The group argues that the city should look to do that now rather than later.

They also said a sea wall adds to beach erosion by pushing waves back out onto the beach.

“We feel like we’re going to lose this beach. South Ocean Beach is such a special place and most of California, 75% of California’s beaches by 2100 are going to be eroded. So, it’s a huge issue and the more sea walls that get permitted, the more sea walls are going to get permitted in the future,” said Atkind.

In the end, many of the commissioners echoed those same concerns with the sea wall solution but also said the alternative of simply moving the infrastructure would cost even more money… and wouldn’t be completed in time to protect the tunnel from damage.

 “I just don’t think it’s responsible of us to deny this permit given the implications of what could happen. I would encourage the city to keep looking at new technology, to look at new ways. I know this may be falling on deaf ears but technology is changing constantly and if any of this could be done away with, so be it,” said a California Coastal Commissioner.