The report included six options to improve the ecosystem along the coast: one that proposed no changes to the area, three that focused solely on restoration and two that included restoration efforts and removing parts of the breakwater to allow wave action. “The city could select a plan that includes changes to the breakwater, but that would not be one the corps would support.” “It has to be a project that both entities can support to move forward,” City Manager Tom Modica said. Before anything is finalized, the corps is seeking feedback from the public on results of the study. The federal government’s share would be about $91.5 million, while Long Beach would be responsible for $49.3 million. The restoration plan is projected to cost nearly $141 million. The project “provides habitat for key life stages of a diverse population of fish and other aquatic species, primarily by providing foraging, sheltering and critical nursery functions that support population health and growth,” the study says.
The plan could be a model worldwide, experts say. If agreed to by the Long Beach City Council and approved by Congress, the initiative would be the corps’ first open-ocean ecosystem restoration project in the nation, officials said. The agency instead proposed an initiative, dubbed the Reef Restoration Plan, to cultivate 201 acres of aquatic habitat with kelp beds, rocky reefs and eelgrass to improve water quality and support habitat biodiversity in East San Pedro Bay. “We didn’t have complete answers based on data until recently, but we’ve had concerns all along.” “We’ve been working on the analysis for some time,” said Raina Fulton, who oversees the corps’ project considerations. The data showed that the oil islands - which were created to conceal offshore drilling operations - along with the Shoreline Marina and the port would all need additional armoring if the waves returned, officials with the corps said in an interview this week. The agency used wave models to simulate how changes to the breakwater could affect existing infrastructure. Army Corps of Engineers has concluded that any changes to the breakwater would be too costly and could hamper Navy operations there, as well as at the ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, the oil islands and Long Beach’s Carnival Cruise terminal.
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