City of Monterey studies potential to pump sand onto eroding beaches.

One way to deal with beaches that won’t stop disappearing: Dump a bunch of sand onto them. That solution, called “beach nourishment,” is now under serious consideration by the city of Monterey.

The work started with $150,000 in state grants allowing the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) to evaluate options for dealing with the eroding Monterey Bay. The resulting report, in 2008, became the first of a dozen Coastal Regional Sediment Management Plans in the state.

A second grant of $150,000, also from State Parks’ Division of Boats and Waterways, expanded the study’s scope to include the analysis of beach nourishment under state and federal environmental laws, according to AMBAG Planner Anais Schenk. Since AMBAG isn’t authorized to do the work, it gave the grant back to the state, which reassigned it to the city of Monterey earlier this month. City Planner Kimberly Cole was not available for comment.

In related news, the county supervisors July 9 directed the county Resource Management Agency to apply for a $500,000 State Coastal Conservancy grant. The funds would be used to develop Local Coastal Plan updates addressing sea level rise, flooding and other climate-change impacts threatening coastal property and infrastructure in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.