San Elijo Lagoon needs a new dredging approach, says the San Diego Nature Collective.
The environmental nonprofit says that the lagoon has been having issues anticipated since July, made far worse by the recent record-breaking triple-digit heat wave that blanketed the region for several days with little respite.
After a milestone was reached in the restoration project, the lagoon was reported as having significant ecological challenges earlier this year due to sand accumulation at its inlet and in its channels.
Between January and June, Nature Collective removed sand and opened the inlet at Cardiff State Beach four times, which had been closed to the San Elijo Lagoon due to an accumulation of sand, improving tidal flow and building climate resilience — primary objectives of the wetland restoration.
However, as successful as that restoration has been, the complexity of the ecosystem has brought a new challenge: sand now travels farther into the lagoon channel during winter storms and blocks the channel, once again hindering the tidal flow.
The newly restored system has shown remarkable resilience, said the Nature Collective — sustaining marine life for two months of inlet closure. The success can be attributed to removing high-nutrient materials from the channels during the restoration project, along with the plant life within the channels producing oxygen.
“Unfortunately, with the record temperatures that San Diego experienced over the last week, the San Elijo Lagoon system has finally become hypoxic, and fish and other marine life are being lost,” said the Nature Conservancy in a press release. “They sadly expect more.”
Traditional land-based excavation is ineffective in this case, the organization added. In this case — and in collaboration with their San Elijo Lagoon Restoration Project partners, SANDAG — they have identified the need for a new approach: aquatic-based dredging.
Bids and proposals to carry out this new approach were submitted to Nature Collective earlier this week, and the organization says that they will work as swiftly as possible to secure funding and operators to carry out the new approach.
The San Diego Nature Collective, formerly the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy, works to restore habitats to provide healthier waters and greater wildlife diversity.
