Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [26 Dec 2011 - 1 Jan 2012]
from Green Business Times
Berlayar Creek Boardwalk is open!
from wild shores of singapore
white-bellied sea eagle forest @ pasir ris - 01Jan2012
from sgbeachbum
Butterflies galore in CCNR
from Urban Forest
Pied triller黑鳴鵑鵙(音Ju2)outside of our HDB flat
from PurpleMangrove
Channel NewsAsia 2 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE: Residents living in the southern part of Singapore can enjoy a new leisure playground with the official opening of the Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk.
The 2.1km Walk comprises three distinct segments - Alexandra Garden Trail, Berlayer Creek, and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.
The Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk was conceptualised and developed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and will be managed by the National Parks Board.
Visitors can now enter charming mangrove and coastal areas, which were previously not accessible to pedestrians.
The Walk seamlessly connects the Southern Ridges to the Southern Waterfront.
It runs along Alexandra Road from Depot Road to Telok Blangah Road, through the Berlayer Creek mangrove area and skirts the foothills of Bukit Chermin.
Information panels placed at various intervals along the Walk allow visitors to learn about nearby attractions and rich biodiversity in the area.
The Walk was officially opened by Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Lim Hng Kiang Monday morning.
- CNA/cc
Mangrove and coastal walk now open to visitors
AsiaOne 2 Jan 12;
Residents living in the southern part of Singapore can now enter charming mangrove and coastal areas with the Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk.
Launched today by Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Lim Hng Kiang, the Walk leads visitors into areas that were previously inaccessible to pedestrians.
These tranquil nature spots will be an oasis of calm for visitors amidst the hustle and bustle of the city, connecting the Southern Ridges to the Southern Waterfront.
It runs along Alexandra Road from Depot Road to Telok Blangah Road, through the Berlayer Creek mangrove area and skirts the foothills of Bukit Chermin.
Along the way, visitors can learn about nearby attractions and the rich biodiversity in the area from information panels placed at various intervals along the Walk.
The 2.1km walk comprises three distinct segments -- Alexandra Garden Trail, Berlayer
Creek, and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.
Alexandra Garden Trail
Pedestrians and cyclists can revel in the scenic views and greenery along the 830m Alexandra Garden Trail, which is connected to key recreational destinations in the area such as Alexandra Arch, Forest Walk and the future arts cluster at Gillman Village.
Cycling and foot paths meander around mature roadside trees, with more than 10 species of flowering plants and foliage added to the foot of the trees to enhance the trail
Berlayer Creek
The Berlayer Creek mangrove trail is 969m long and is one of the few remaining mangrove areas in the city area.
Previously inaccessible to pedestrians, the opening of the Labrador Park MRT Station right next to it along with the new trail makes it convenient and simple for members of the public to explore this nature area.
A visitor pavilion provides a sheltered rest point and and allows visitors to enjoy elevated views of the mangrove through its roof deck. Look-out points perched over the Creek also allow users to get closer to the biodiversity.
Bukit Chermin Boardwalk
Visitors and photography enthusiasts can soak in the breathtaking panoramic waterfront views at Keppel Harbour by the 330m Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.
Sights such as schools of fish or ecosystems of crustaceans can be spotted during the different tides.
Pedestrians will eventually be able to continue walking seamlessly all the way to Sentosa via the public promenades at Reflections at Keppel Bay, the Caribbean at Keppel Bay, Harbourfront and Vivocity.
The Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk was conceptualised and developed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and will be managed by the National Parks Board.
Visitors can download an e-guide at www.nparks.gov.sg/eguides.
Get closer to nature with Labrador walk
Evelyn Choo Today Online 3 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE - Residents of and visitors to the southern part of Singapore have a new leisure destination - mangrove and coastal areas that were previously inaccessible - with the official opening of the Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk.
The 2.1km walk, which seamlessly connects the Southern Ridges to the Southern Waterfront, runs along Alexandra Road from Depot Road to Telok Blangah Road, through the Berlayar Creek mangrove area and skirts the foothills of Bukit Chermin.
It comprises three distinct segments - Alexandra Garden Trail, Berlayar Creek and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk - with Berlayar Creek home to a myriad of wildlife: 60 bird species, 19 fish species and 14 mangrove plant species recorded in an area of only 5.6ha.
Extra care was taken to retain the natural environment along the walk, which was conceptualised and developed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and will be managed by the National Parks Board.
For example, some boardwalks are elevated to ensure that animals can move from one end to the other. And as they usually move around at night, there are no lamp posts along certain stretches.
"All the lights (subtle LED lights) are hidden below the handrails," said URA executive architect (Conservation & Urban Design) Lee Howe Ming.
"We can maintain the nocturnal environment of this area and, at the same time, the public can come in for a moonlit stroll in this mangrove setting."
Footpaths and bicycle paths also meander around mature rain trees, seamlessly weaving flora and fauna into the urban landscape, while information panels along the walk allow visitors to learn about nearby attractions and the rich biodiversity in the area.
Construction of the S$10-million walk began in 2010 and was completed at the end of last year.
Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang, who opened the walk yesterday, said it would provide new and healthy ways for visitors and residents of Telok Blangah to spend their weekends and holidays.
Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk now open
Alvina Soh / Evelyn Choo Channel NewsAsia 2 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE: Residents living in the southern part of Singapore can enjoy a new leisure playground with the official opening of the Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk.
The 2.1km Walk comprises three distinct segments - Alexandra Garden Trail, Berlayer Creek and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.
The Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk was conceptualised and developed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and will be managed by the National Parks Board.
Visitors can now enter charming mangrove and coastal areas, which were previously not accessible to pedestrians.
The Walk seamlessly connects the Southern Ridges to the Southern Waterfront.
It runs along Alexandra Road from Depot Road to Telok Blangah Road, through the Berlayer Creek mangrove area and skirts the foothills of Bukit Chermin.
A relatively small area of 5.6 hectares, Berlayer Creek is home to a myriad of wildlife species. Some 60 bird species, 19 species of fish and 14 true mangrove plant species have been recorded.
Extra care was taken to retain the natural environment of the Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk. For example, some boardwalks are elevated to ensure animals can still move from one end to the other.
As the movements usually happen at night, there are no lamp posts along certain stretches of the Walk.
Lee Howe Ming, URA's executive architect of the Conservation & Urban Design Group, said: "We do not have lamp posts along here because that would be too much in this environment. So all the lights are hidden below the handrails in terms of subtle LED lights.
"At night, we can still maintain the nocturnal environment of this area and at the same time, the public can still come in for a kind of moonlit stroll in this mangrove setting."
Footpaths and cycle paths also meander around mature rain trees, seamlessly weaving flora and fauna into the urban landscape.
Information panels placed at various intervals along the Walk allow visitors to learn about nearby attractions and rich biodiversity in the area.
Construction of the S$10 million Walk began in 2010 and was completed at the end of last year.
The Walk was officially opened by Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Lim Hng Kiang on Monday morning.
Mr Lim said the extension will provide many new and healthy ways for visitors and residents of Telok Blangah to spend their weekends and holidays.
- CNA/ac
Trail linking Southern Ridges to coast opens
Lim Yan Liang Straits Times 3 Jan 12;
NATURE lovers can now explore a new trail that links the Southern Ridges to the waterfront at Keppel Harbour. The 2.1km, $10 million Labrador Nature & Coastal Walk was officially opened yesterday, closing the loop between Keppel Bay, Labrador Nature Reserve and Alexandra Arch by way of Labrador MRT station.
The Walk, which took about a year and a half to build, consists of three distinct parts: Alexandra Garden Trail, Berlayer Creek and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.
The first path is a 830m park connector along Alexandra Road, featuring mature trees and scented plants.
Berlayer Creek cuts through one of the few remaining mangroves left on mainland Singapore. Previously inaccessible, the raised 960m-long boardwalk gives visitors a glimpse into 5.61ha of mangrove trees plus 60 recorded bird species and other fauna.
Linking Berlayer Creek to the promenade is Bukit Chermin Boardwalk, a 330m seaside walkway with scenic views of nearby Keppel Harbour and across the waters, Sentosa. The Walk was developed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and will be managed by the National Parks Board (NParks).
Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, who officiated at the opening of the Walk yesterday, said: 'Two to three years ago, the connection (was built) with all the hills in the Southern Ridges: From Telok Blangah hill, you can walk eastwards and link up to Mount Faber using Henderson Waves, or you can walk westwards, linking up to Hort Park and Kent Ridge using Alexandra Arch.
'Today, URA and NParks have given us another addition: You can walk southwards, down to the coast. So you have the benefit of either a hill walk or a coastal walk.'
Yesterday, over 800 residents from nearby Dover and Telok Blangah joined in the morning walk. Said Madam Lim Poh Chan, 72, a resident from Telok Blangah Heights: 'This place (Berlayer Creek) used to be just mud. I used to come to the park occasionally but with the new path, I might take my grandchildren more often.'
An NParks spokesman said that guided walks conducted by the agency will begin later in the year. For now, those interested to visit the area can download an e-guide at http://www.nparks.gov.sg/eguides.
More about the boardwalk on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Straits Times 2 Jan 12;
AN ARMY of cleaners hit the streets within minutes of midnight yesterday, even as the last fireworks lit up the skyline and strains of music still played over the air.
Their mission: To rid the streets of trash left behind by revellers, who had gathered as early as Saturday afternoon at various places such as Marina Bay, Orchard Road and Sentosa, to bid farewell to 2011 and welcome the New Year.
Marina Bay, the Promontory and The Lawn - a new and usually pristine field in the Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) - were littered with plastic bags, cups and bottles, sheets of newspaper and the odd bunch of tinsel yesterday morning.
Lessons learnt from countdown parties in previous years, however, meant cleaning and maintenance firms were already out in force before the first fireworks were launched.
They said clearing up some of the litter during the celebrations would prevent the rubbish from piling up the next morning. But Ms C. F. Chong, an operations manager with Chye Thiam Maintenance, which cleared up the Marina Bay area, said cleaners were told to be careful when working among the revellers.
'If they cannot move in an area because of the crowd, they can wait for people to move away,' she said.
Cleaning firms said they had to deploy more staff this year because of more countdown parties and new spaces for people to enjoy the fireworks.
Ms Chong said almost 400 additional cleaners, including sweepers and scrubbers, were involved in the cleanup over the weekend. She is also expecting her firm to dispose of more than the 20 to 25 tonnes of waste they have been handling in previous years.
So far, the National Environment Agency said 3.8 tonnes of refuse has been collected from Orchard Road on New Year's Eve, up from 2.8 tonnes in 2010, said a spokesman yesterday.
Purechem Veolia, which was cleaning up after the Orchard Road party, deployed almost twice as many cleaners this weekend than previously. They worked between 10pm on Saturday and 3am yesterday.
Trash was also found on Siloso Beach in Sentosa, where about 18,000 people partied through the night.
Sentosa's environmental control executive Lee Pei Shi said 68 cleaners and two machines had been dispatched since 3pm on Saturday for the cleanup. She said progressive cleaning had to be carried out throughout the night to ensure that others could enjoy a clean beach the next morning.
At 7am yesterday, an hour after the party ended, one truck filled with about five tonnes of compacted rubbish left the beach, with some still to go. There were also large masses of foam left over from the foam pool, which Ms Lee said would either be raked over with sand or dissolved with water.
Cleaner Sundram Vallachamy, 44, who was at Sentosa, said: 'It is quite difficult to clean because there is so much trash and so many people. I think it will still be another two hours before we are done.'
Hoe Yeen Nie Channel NewsAsia 2 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE: In land-strapped Singapore, underground space has been named a strategic resource by the high-level Economic Strategies Committee.
A masterplan is in the works to map out possible uses and the Ministry of National Development said details will be released this year.
Underneath the bustling Chinatown lies a vast labyrinth of interconnected tunnels snaking across Singapore.
The Downtown railway line, which is being built entirely underground, is part of a decades-long push to go down under in search of space.
The result is a subterranean world teeming with activity.
At the basement level, there's a complex network of utility pipes, electrical grids and pedestrian linkways.
The Common Services Tunnel, which is located five to 10 metres deep, is a system of tunnels designed to house utility services in the Marina Bay area. Built in 2006, the facility allows for the maintenance and repair of utility, sewage and electrical pipes through specially-constructed access points, without having to disrupt traffic above ground.
And 15 to 20 metres deep are the MRT lines and the Marina Coastal Expressway.
Just below that, at the 20 metre to 60 metre level, the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System delivers waste water to an underground treatment plant in Changi.
Over at Jurong Island, the Jurong Rock Cavern is being built at about 150 metres below the island.
And somewhere in the deeper, darker depths, is the Ministry of Defence's ammunition facility located under Mandai quarry.
But not all of Singapore has rock that is solid enough for cavern developments.
Most of it is in the west and central parts of the island lying about 100 metres deep.
In the west, there is sedimentary rock while hard granite is found in the central Bukit Timah region.
Thus, the first step is to create a geology office to know where the good rock is located in Singapore.
The Singapore Geology Office, which is located within the Building and Construction Authority, was set up in April 2010. Its aim is to create a database of information on Singapore's geology, to facilitate future underground developments.
Most information on Singapore's geology derives from a national survey done in 1976 although the information was updated in 2009. Government agencies and developers looking to build underground either referred to these sources, or commissioned their own studies.
Building and Construction Authority's Geological Office assistant director, Kiefer Chiam, said: "The existing information is quite shallow because it's mainly targeted at infrastructure works like MRT, services or building basements. There isn't much information at deeper levels like 100 metres or more.
"In order to support the underground masterplan, we need to know where the good rocks are."
In the immediate term, the focus is on adding more basement-level services like shopping malls and linkways.
But as underground construction incurs huge costs, a masterplan is needed to coordinate future uses and integrate them with structures above ground.
Adele Tan, Deputy Director of Planning Policies at Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), said: "Those are things we have to sort out amongst the agencies. We work closely with each other on it. And where there are conflicts, we have to talk it through and see what are the most optimal alignment and the most cost-effective alignment.
"As we build more things underground, there will be more competing uses and more conflicts of space. Some of these uses that come later may find that they have to go even deeper to avoid some of the uses that are already there in the shallower surfaces."
The challenge of building undergound is not just a technical one. There is also the issue of land rights to consider. In cities like Helsinki for example, private ownership of subterranean land is limited to a certain depth. But in Singapore, the law gives private owners rights to the land stretching all the way down.
It is not a problem currently because the Rapid Transit Systems Act gives rail authorities the right to go through private land. But this may have to be reassessed along with other regulations such as safety codes and utility plans.
Ms Tan said URA is studying other cities for models it can adapt.
URA is also studying how other cities pay for underground developments. In Japan for instance, the government shares the cost with private developers. Unlike places like Hong Kong, Norway and Japan, Singapore's good rock is buried deep underground, and are much more expensive to access.
Ms Tan said: "As we have a better understanding of our space underground, we can then develop this underground space plan progressively. We can identify suitable uses to put underground and put them in the right places as well, so that we can save land."
Singapore's subterranean expansion is still in its early stages.
Urban planners are laying the ground for future development, a process that will take years.
And if they succeed, it will open up many more possibilities on how Singaporeans use the space above to live, work and play.
- CNA/fa
Masterplan in the works to probe deeper underground
Hoe Yeen Nie Today Online 2 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE - A masterplan is in the works to map out possible uses of underground space, named as a strategic resource by the high-level Economic Strategies Committee in land-strapped Singapore. The Ministry of National Development said details will be released later this year.
The first step, the authorities said, is to create a geology office to know where the good rock is located in Singapore. "The existing information is quite shallow because it's mainly targeted at infrastructure works like MRT, services or building basements. There isn't much information at deeper levels like 100m or more," said the Building and Construction Authority's Geological Office assistant director Kiefer Chiam.
The Singapore Geology Office, located within the authority, was set up in April 2010 with the aim of creating a database of information on Singapore's geology to facilitate future underground developments.
Most information on Singapore's geology derives from a national survey done in 1976 although the information was updated in 2009. Government agencies and developers looking to build underground either referred to these sources, or commissioned their own studies.
As underground construction incurs huge costs, a masterplan is needed to coordinate future uses and integrate them with structures above ground.
Ms Adele Tan, deputy director of Planning Policies at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), said: "As we build more things underground, there will be more competing uses and more conflicts of space. Some of these uses that come later may find that they have to go even deeper to avoid some of the uses that are already there in the shallower surfaces."
The challenge of building undergound is not just a technical one. There is also the issue of land rights to consider. In cities like Helsinki, for example, private ownership of subterranean land is limited to a certain depth. But in Singapore, the law gives private owners rights to the land stretching all the way down.
It is not a problem currently because the Rapid Transit Systems Act gives rail authorities the right to go through private land. But this may have to be reassessed along with other regulations such as safety codes and utility plans.
Ms Tan said the URA is studying other cities for models it can adapt. It is also studying how other cities pay for underground developments.
In Japan, for instance, the government shares the cost with private developers. Unlike places like Hong Kong, Norway and Japan, Singapore's good rock is buried deep underground, and are much more expensive to access. Hoe Yeen Nie
Govt studies possibility of underground science city
Hoe Yeen Nie Channel NewsAsia 2 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE: A study of an unprecedented scale is taking place beneath the Singapore Science Park, in the western part of the country. It is for a science complex, about 30 storeys below the surface at the 80 to 100 metre layer, to house research labs, offices and a data centre.
The area being studied lies between Science Parks 1 and 2, and the objective is to link the underground science city to facilities above. The feasibility study is expected to be completed by April 2012.
Developer JTC Corporation describes the project as an expensive experiment, but one that is perhaps inevitable, as land here becomes increasingly scarce.
David Tan, Assistant CEO of JTC Corporation, said: "By putting an underground science city between Science Parks 1 and 2, we could actually have two plots of land for development - one at the bottom, underground; the other one on top. The key is really to see how we can use a piece of land twice."
There are benefits to building underground. For instance, the stable climate allows for greater efficiency of facilities such as data centres. The enclosed environment also ensures a higher degree of safety for storing risky chemicals.
But such advantages come with a price. Mr Tan estimates that building underground will cost 50 per cent more than a similar facility above ground.
Lessons can be learnt from JTC Corporation's Jurong Rock Cavern, which is an underground oil bunker at Jurong Island. For instance, evacuation plans and ventilation points need to be mapped out in detail, as there are limited access points at such depths. There is also a smaller margin for error as space is constrained by the availability of solid rock.
Construction challenges are also more complex. When building underground, the size and the shape of the cavern are dependent on site conditions and the quality of rock, which may cause some inflexibility in the size of the facilities created within the space. For the Jurong Rock Caverns, each cavern is about 20 metres wide and 25 metres high.
In addition, engineers have to work around the problem of fault lines, and water seeping into the caverns.
Associate Professor (adjunct) Zhou Yingxin, from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, is a mining engineer who has worked on the Jurong Rock Cavern as well as the Defence Ministry's ammunition bunker.
He said: "The risks associated with underground construction is not so much that we don't know what to do with the problem, it's that very often we don't know what to expect."
"You have to build with the ground that's there, whether it's good rock or bad rock. Of course you can try to choose a good site. But even a good site, you wouldn't know the rock until you see it.
"So you must have a plan to deal with such uncertainties... That's why you must have very experienced people on site. When they see it, they know what's going to happen, and they know what to do."
While most people are used to going underground to get to carparks and shopping malls, there are various issues that architects and engineers have to consider to make underground developments truly liveable. For example, the kind of anxieties people might have with spending so many hours deep underground.
Natural light, greenery and fresh air are some of the things that make cities liveable, and will be as important in an underground space.
Andres Sevtsuki, Associate Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, said: "We're biological creatures. We like sunlight, we like environments, we like trees and nature, and we like seeing other people.
"When we build cities, when we build urban environments, I think we usually think beyond necessity, we think of ideal environments, because this is where we spend our lives."
Creating underground cities is still, in many ways, a theoretical fancy. But over the years, authorities have built increasingly taller buildings and added over a fifth of the country's land mass through reclamation alone. Going underground is simply the next frontier, in Singapore's never-ending search for space.
-CNA/ac
Ong Han Sean The Star 2 Jan 12;
RAUB: Two new species of the Rafflesia may have been discovered in the Lata Jarum forests in Ulu Dong here.
Frasers Hill Research Centre head Prof Dr Jumaat Adam, who disclosed this, said the flowers were unique in the region.
“I am still studying the discovery. We need to go through the process of cross-checking against the criteria of other species in the world to confirm it,” he told The Star.
Dr Jumaat, a lead environmental researcher of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, is a pioneer in Rafflesia research.
Declining to disclose the exact location for fear of endangering the flowers, he said one species had a much larger diaphragm aperture than other Rafflesia flowers in Malaysia.
The flowers found in the peninsula are usually about 10cm but this specie measured 14cm in diameter, he said, adding that it also had more anthers.
The diaphragm is the hole in the centre of the Rafflesia where insects enter and collect pollen from the anther.
Dr Jumaat said he had yet to come up with names for the new species as there was still a lot to be studied about the flowers.
“Due to scientific-naming conventions, I cannot name the flowers after myself if they are indeed new species,” he added.
Dr Jumaat said Lata Jarum had a lot of potential for a eco-tourism centre and the Rafflesia could be promoted as an icon for Raub.
“We are also working with the state government to conserve the Rafflesia here because they are very vulnerable,” he said.
“Right now, anyone can just come in and pluck the buds,” he said.
Kow Kwan Yee The Star 2 Jan 12;
GEORGE TOWN: A hawker found a dolphin beached near Tanjung Bungah here.
Unfortunately, the dolphin died 30 minutes after G. Balakumaran spotted it.
Balakumaran, 36, said he saw the dolphin floating at about 5pm on Saturday.
“It was close to dying, so I called the (state) Fisheries Department but there was no reply,” he claimed.
He alerted The Star, whose representative called the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP).
By the time three MPPP workers and officers from the Fire and Rescue Department’s station in Bagan Jermal arrived, the dolphin had died.
They then buried it at the beach.
The incident attracted hordes of onlookers.
MPPP councillor Ong Ah Teong said it was the third case of dolphins found dead here last year.
“The first was found rotting at the beachfront near Eastern and Oriental Hotel in May, while the second was found dead off Gurney Drive in September,” he added.
Ong said the state recorded the highest number of dead dolphins found last year compared to the previous years.
He said it was difficult to pinpoint the reason why dolphins ended up stranded or dead off the shores here.The council’s urban development department was only responsible for clearing up the dead dolphins, he added.
The longtime practice of dumping huge rocks and chunks of concrete along the coastline to stop erosion is coming under fire from those who favor letting the shoreline retreat naturally. San Francisco's efforts to protect Ocean Beach is the latest battleground.
Tony Barboza Los Angeles Times 2 Jan 12;
For years, San Francisco's Ocean Beach has been under assault by such powerful surf that a fierce winter storm can scour away 25 feet of bluff in just days.
The startling pace of the erosion near the San Francisco Zoo has compelled the city to spend $5 million to shore up the crumbling bluffs. The strategy has been simple: drop huge rocks and mounds of sand to protect the nearby Great Highway and the sewer pipes underneath from being destroyed by the crashing waves.
But as the enormous rocks have piled up, adding to a jumble of concrete — chunks of curb and bits and pieces of gutters — from parking lots that have tumbled onto the shore, so too have the demands that the city get rid of it all and let the coastline retreat naturally.
Now, San Francisco finds itself under fire from environmentalists, who call the rock and rubble unsightly and harmful to the beach, and the California Coastal Commission, which regulates development along the state's 1,100-mile coastline but has refused to sign off on the fortifications, some of which have sat on the shore for 15 years without its permission.
The standoff at Ocean Beach is the face of the fight in California over the proliferation of sea walls and tossed-together barriers, steps that environmentalists and others say are obliterating the state's beaches and will never stand up against the advancing ocean.
"It's like a post-apocalyptic war zone out there, and nowhere else would you allow it," Mark Massara said of the heaps of rock and concrete at Ocean Beach. Massara is a local resident and an attorney for the California Coastal Protection Network, an environmental group that has filed suit to force the city to remove the rock.
"My concern as a surfer that lives on Ocean Beach is that I'm going to die before these people ever remove all this stuff," he said.
City officials say they can't simply let the sea have its way. They've removed some debris, but pulling out everything would put the roadway and vital infrastructure underneath at risk.
"If you remove the rubble, how much more rapidly is the erosion going to occur?" said Frank Filice, manager of capital planning for the San Francisco Department of Public Works. "Actions have to be done very incrementally. In the meantime, the rubble has a purpose — not a very attractive one — but it does provide protection."
The dispute over how to respond to the receding shoreline south of the Golden Gate Bridge is similar to others playing out at wave-battered bluffs and beaches up and down the coast, where temporary sea walls have a way of becoming permanent fixtures.
An emergency coastal permit like the one San Francisco used to build one of its sea walls can be obtained over the counter from the Coastal Commission, allowing property owners to quickly erect a temporary barrier in the face of severe winter storms.
But when the cranes and bulldozers leave and the storms pass, the sea walls have a way of sticking around, sometimes for years.
On crumbling bluff tops from Pacifica in Northern California to Encinitas in San Diego County, homes are protected by large rock sea walls and sandbags that were allowed under emergency permits but have never been formally approved. In Cayucos, a beach town in San Luis Obispo County, some oceanfront homes are protected by nearly 30-year-old sea walls that received nothing more than verbal authorization. Other coastal highways in the state are protected by sea walls that were supposed to be temporary.
The 1,000 feet of rock sea walls at the center of the dispute in San Francisco were not supposed to be permanent either. Some were built with emergency permits and some without any permission from the Coastal Commission.
In July, the panel rejected San Francisco's bid for after-the-fact approval for the barriers and get permission to build several hundred feet of new, buried sea wall. The commission said the city needed to come up with a better plan, such as moving back from the shore or building a vertical structure mimicking a natural bluff.
San Francisco shot back, suing the Coastal Commission in September in an effort to void its decision.
Ocean Beach, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is not for the casual swimmer because of its chilly water and violent surf. But the urban beach gets about 2 million visitors a year, and the eroding section south of Sloat Boulevard is popular with hard-core surfers because of its huge swells.
Twice, the waves have been brutal enough to pose a threat to underground infrastructure, city officials said. The El Niño-stoked storms of December 2009 and January 2010, for instance, devoured more than 40 feet of bluff, undermined the Great Highway and sent its southbound lanes sliding into the surf.
San Francisco's reliance on crude sea walls isn't out of the ordinary in California, where property owners for decades have erected fortifications when waves threaten homes, roads and underground sewer lines.
The result: More than 10% of the state's coastline — and about one-third of Southern California — is protected with man-made barriers.
Although sea walls effectively protect property in the short term, they can intensify the effect of waves and alter surf patterns, leaving beaches stripped of sand until they narrow or even vanish altogether.
Environmental and surfing groups strongly oppose the barriers, and coastal regulators have increasingly asked property owners to find other ways to cope with the ocean.
There are some signs San Francisco is moving in that direction.
Last month the Coastal Commission granted the city an emergency permit to drop large sandbags on a length of the beach in preparation for this winter's storms, a softer approach on the city's part that even drew praise from a member of the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, an opponent of sea walls.
A master plan being drafted for the beach calls for moving the most pinched stretch of the Great Highway several hundred feet inland and narrowing the road in other places.
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