Surfside's rocky bottom

Aside from dirtying up your car after a quick jog or being wedged inside your wetsuit, sand is a shifty substance.
The granulated quartz, with such elements as silica, can be found in anything from concrete to non-skid surfaces.
But most people know it to be found on the beach.
As the tide turns from low to high, the sand is pushed around depending on the direction of each wave break.
Due to many man-made structures, such as jetties and breakwaters, local beach cities are constantly maneuvering tons of sand to protect homes from flooding and beaches from depleting.
In Seal Beach, where sand is a nesting bed for one of the world’s largest stingray populations, this push and pull process is a major part of the ecosystem.
While the city’s public works department is in charge of replenishing the east beach sand and building annual sand burms through applying for grants, the Surfside community, on the other hand, is taken care of by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about every five to seven years.
The Sunset Beach and Surfside communities were recently lauded by the county as one of the most efficient beaches the coast has to offer, as reported recently in the Sun.
But the accolades didn’t come without having a rocky past.
About 20 years ago, a large storm system wreaked havoc on this fragile environment causing an emergency situation. In the early 80s, during a time when the Army Corps was late on re-nourishing the sand, the set of storms wiped out half of the pier and flooded homes.
Residents of the beachfront community were scrambling to protect their properties.
So the city came up with an idea to put in a “rock revampment” project, or create a barrier in front of the homes with large rocks or boulders to keep the sand from moving, according to Lee Whittenberg, Seal Beach director of development services.
And although it was an emergency, that didn’t exempt the city from having to file for a permit with the California Coastal Commission, to take into account of the environmental impact the construction of the barrier might have.
However, the commission wanted to open up the gates of Surfside to the public as a condition to the permit. The Surfside Homeowners Association ended up challenging the commission in federal court.
A judge later ruled that the condition couldn’t be imposed, and the permit was granted by the late 80s.
But the rocks still remain.
They lay buried under the sand about 20 to 30 feet from houses.
In years past, with the influx of such a heavy surge at what surfers call “the bowl” from Anderson Street to the jetty near Anaheim Bay, there continues to be significant wave refraction.
Occasionally, the rocks sometimes still might pop up from time to time.