SPECIAL REPORT: Sand mining on the Central Coast

The public and private debate over the future of the Cemex sand mining plant in Marina continues.

We’re expecting to hear something soon from the California Coastal Commission, after months of delayed deadlines following a cease and desist letter.

“This kind of erosion has a very large impact,” says retired Naval Post Graduate Oceanography professor Ed Thornton. Decades of watching and studying our coast has made him an expert. “Now if you go back in history before there was erosion the beach was actually growing, it was ecreting because of the input by the Salinas River,” says Thornton. He says, “It’s time to shut it down, that’s the consensus of a lot of people. If you consider that this is really some of the most beautiful pristine shoreline in all of the world, we feel it’s not really an appropriate use.”

Thrornton, along with several environmental groups such as the Surfrider Foundation and Save Our Shores, are trying to get the California Coastal Commission to end sand mining operations at the Cemex plant in Marina.

Surfrider Foundation Chair, Ximena Waissbluth says, “The fact that they’re taking this much sand and taking away the beaches, seems insane.”

Katherine O’Dea, Executive Director of Save Our Shores says, “They take an absolutely free resource, that’s not only they’re taking a free resource, it’s causing damage, millions of dollars of damage in erosion, and then they turn it into profit, only for Cemex.”

It’s not a new fight. It’s been going on for decades. In the 1920’s sand mining began on the southern coast of the Monterey Bay, and by 1960 there were 6 coastal operations. It wasn’t until 1989 that the Corp of Engineers shut five of them down because of concerns over coastal erosion.

“This is where the most erosion is occurring in all of California,” Thornton says, “and all scientists I know agree the reason for that erosion is the ongoing sand mining in Marina.”

The other struggle has been with public perception. It may look like there’s plenty of sand on the beach, and even if you went out everyday you probably wouldn’t notice much of a difference, but the Mayor of Marina says his city alone has lost as much as 75 acres of land to coastal erosion.

“So we’ve actually lost 75 football fields worth of land and it’s continuing, so of course we are concerned,” said Mayor Bruce Carlos Delgado.

Cemex, headquartered in Mexico, took control of that plant in 2004 and since it wasn’t in the jurisdiction of the state, it was left to the City of Marina to decide its future. It wasn’t until march of 2016 that Marina gave control to the Coastal Commission, a state agency with oversight of coastal land use.

The Commission sent Cemex a cease and desist letter in April. Thornton says, “There is no grand fathering, there was never a permit and it required a permit because of its impacts on the environment, and it continues today.”

Negotiations between the Coastal Commission and Cemex also continue today. Cemex says it’s mining in an environmentally friendly way.

While some people support the mine because it employs locals, Marina’s Mayor and others are hoping for a resolution soon.

“I hope that the resolution, the solution, respects the workers that are there, respects the environment and makes Cemex whole in whatever way is fair, so that there’s no losers here,” said Delgado.

Neither Cemex nor the Coastal Commission wanted to speak with us because of ongoing negotiations.