A state commission is about to decide the fate of a proposed 3,200-foot underground seawall to protect a sewage tunnel on the southern end of Ocean Beach, but surfers say it would make the beach more dangerous not just for them, but for ordinary beachgoers too.

Just as San Francisco is preparing plans to make changes to the eastern SF Bay-facing part of town to accommodate for climate change and rising sea levels in the years to come, there are similar plans in the western coastal area of Ocean Beach. While that part of town has plenty of beach buffer separating structures from the ocean (for now, at least!), the SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has proposed a plan to dig up the beach and place a 3,200-foot underground seawall in place to protect a concrete sewage tunnel and the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant that uses it.

But the Chronicle reports that surfers are warning the underground seawall would make the beach more dangerous, as it would inadvertently make the waves more powerful, and paradoxically contribute to further erosion.  

“When you have waves being blocked, you have a huge propensity for scour and spreading erosion to adjacent areas,” former Surfrider Foundation representative and current Ocean Beach surfer Bill McLaughlin told the Chronicle. “And it’s really problematic for us to conserve the beach.”

The SFPUC argues that burying the seawall underground will minimize such impacts, and make the anticipated larger waves of the future much less dangerous.

“The project’s design will greatly improve the amount of beach available for surfers and recreation,” SFPUC press secretary Nancy Hayden Crowley said in a statement to the Chronicle. “Project engineers designed the buried seawall to create a more resilient beach while protecting critical sewer infrastructure that serves San Francisco’s west side.”

The catch, though, is that the “underground seawall” plan would require regularly replenishing the beach with more new sand, which will come with a price tag of about $1 million a year.

All of this said, this decision lies neither with the SFPUC nor with surfers or the Surfrider Foundation. The California Coastal Commission will approve or deny the plan at a Thursday meeting.

Related: Man Required Rescue From Sewer Pipe Near Ocean Beach [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 26: People walk along Ocean Beach on May 26, 2020 in San Francisco, California. Beaches across the state have seen large crowds as they have started to slowly reopen with rules in place such as maintaining social distancing in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)