Army Corp sends parameters for Recon Study, Coastal Conservancy may be sending money

The parameters for the Long Beach Breakwater Reconnaissance Study have arrived, and the list of federal regulations sent by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers amounts to a job description for a job that’s never been described before.”

Army Corps staff informs us that this is the first time a city has attempted to conduct a Recon study itself,” says Tom Modica, who is overseeing breakwater-related correspondence for the city manager’s office. “Normally, it’s 100 percent funded and conducted by the federal government.”

On July 24, the City Council voted 7-1 to authorize $100,000 for the Reconnaissance Study – which, basically, will determine the cost effectiveness of possibly reconfiguring the Long Beach Breakwater – under pressure from growing public dissatisfaction over water quality along the local shoreline, which is the worst in California.Three categories of information were sent by the Army Corps to help Long Beach search for a consultant to oversee the study: 1) a sample scope of the work a consultant would be required to complete; 2) the entire reconnaissance study guidelines; and 3) a sample study (which amounts to a standardized form with a lot of fill-in-the blanks for whoever is hired as consultant).

Meanwhile, Long Beach’s bill for the project may be cut in half. The agenda for the Dec. 13 meeting of the California Coastal Conservancy includes a consent item – meaning there is no public hearing — to grant Long Beach $50,000 for the Reconnaissance Study.”

It’s listed as a consent item because $50,000 is not a large amount for the Conservancy,” says Christopher Kroll, the Conservancy’s project manager for the grant. “It’s an issue the board will vote on, yeah or nay.”

In celebration of all this momentum, the Long Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation – which has been fighting to reconfigure the breakwater for nearly a decade — will throw a fundraising Breakwater Bash party at Smooth’s Sports Grille on Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. It’s open to the public and $10 at the door. There will be a silent auction, loud surf rock from Jim Fuller & The Beatnik, and all proceeds will go toward the Surfrider Foundation.

Tags: army corp of engineers, breakwater, coastal conservancy, Long Beach, recon study, waves