Two members of the Long Beach City Council will ask their colleagues to approve an allocation of $100,000 from the Tidelands Fund to study the possibility of removing or reconfiguring the Long Beach Breakwater, a wall of clay and rock that has stifled the surf along the city’s recreational beaches since 1949.

“People have spent a long time saying this ought to be done,” said Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell of the Fourth District, who is co-authoring an agenda item at the July 24 meeting of the Long Beach City Council with Council Rae Gabelich of the Eighth District. “But until now nobody has done the work of finding and committing the dollars.”

The Tidelands Fund is money Long Beach receives as its share of revenues from drilling in the rich oil fields beneath the city. Revenues from the Fund are running ahead of budget projections, in part because of the high price of oil. Uses of Tidelands Funds are restricted to mostly water-related activities. They cannot be used to pay for things like libraries, police or firefighters.

“I’m saying we have the $100,000,” said O’Donnell, “and that this is an appropriate expenditure.”

O’Donnell emphasized that the money would be allocated for a preliminary study—so basic that one of its objectives would be to determine whether Long Beach even has the right to make decisions regarding the breakwater. The structure was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, which was stationed in Long Beach during World War II, and is owned by the federal government.

However, members of the Long Beach Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation were ecstatic about O’Donnell’s proposal.

“This is really great news,” said Gordana Kajer of the group. “This is the long-awaited first step toward what we have been working on for years.”

Local activists formed the Long Beach chapter in 1996 with the single goal of removing or configuring the breakwater, which has been blamed for water pollution and beach erosion. Approval of funding for a study would represent its first measurable progress.

The issue has come before the Council twice before. In 2001, it was defeated. In 2004, the Council voted 8-1 to seek federal funding for a study. However, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) whose district runs along the Long Beach coastline, has refused to author a request for funding.

Interestingly, O’Donnell and Gabelich represent inland council districts. Long Beach’s coastline is represented by Suja Lowenthal in the Second District and Gary DeLong in the Third District.

“I think this shows that the quality of our water and our beaches is a city-wide concern,” said O’Donnell. “I have high hopes that we can get the blessing of the entire council to finally move ahead with this.”

The council will consider the action three weeks after The District’s July 3 cover story on The Surfrider Foundation’s long and fruitless efforts to fund just such a study.

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