Artificial Reef Off the SC Coastline?
SC Times 6 Feb 08;
Vol. 3, Issue 6, February 7-13, 2008
THE LATEST: The California Coastal Commission approved a permit on Wednesday for Southern California Edison to build a 126.7-acre artificial reef from San Mateo Point to just north of the San Clemente Pier. The reef will stretch 2.5 miles in length approximately .6 miles offshore.
The reef has been in the works since the 1960s when a study revealed that water pumped from the Pacific Ocean into the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to cool Units 2 and 3 was returned to the ocean 20 degrees warmer, which was declared harmful to the ocean’s kelp beds. To compensate, Southern California Edison agreed to build an artificial reef to mitigate any damage done to the ocean environment.
“What we’re about to do it attempt to create a complex eco system on a rather large scale,” said SCE Manager of Environmental Projects David Kay at Wednesday’s meeting. While optimistic about the project, he did warn the commissioners that it may not go perfectly. “We have time to adapt our reef to the curveballs that Mother Nature occasionally throws,” he said.
In the past four decades, Southern California Edison has cooperated in years of study and testing. In 1999 they build their first test reefs: 22.5 acres in 56 different patches, crafted from ruble and rock in various densities and heights. In the years since, project leaders have learned that these reefs must be located in waters not too deep or shallow and not on ground that’s too sandy or too hard. They also learned that smaller formations of rock that move with major storms is most effective for the kelp, a weed-like plant that claims ground quickly but can be blocked out by coral. This coral, in turn, is usually jarred from the rocks when they move during a storm, allowing the kelp to again thrive.
