The City of Fillmore and Ventura County are appealing a court ruling that approved a contract between Moorpark and the Broad Beach Geologic Hazard Abatement District to haul sand from Grimes Canyon to Malibu to resurrect a vanished beach.

Grimes Canyon has apparently not been finalized as the source for the sand, but the stage is set. This idea of replenishing the sand on Broad Beach by this means is preposterous, dangerous, and about as anti-environmental as one could imagine.

"The plan, officially known as a “beach nourishment project,” is designed to replace sand after a dramatic shrinking of the beach due to erosion since 2008." The scale of the plan is Homeric. An estimated 43,000 truck trips over the course of the first stage in the project, or 420 trips per day on Highway 126 from the City of Moorpark [Grimes Canyon] through Fillmore." And, of course, those trucks have to return for more sand.

Highway 23 to Fillmore is one of the most winding roadways in the county, with hairpin turns and 300-foot cliffs. "The 10-year plan, approved by the California Coastal Commission earlier this month, will allow residents to import 300,000 cubic yards of sand every five years to rebuild sand dunes lost over the years due to pounding storms and high tides."

The $31-million Broad Beach renewal project would have trucks transporting sand to Malibu by way of 43,000 one-way trips through Fillmore and Santa Paula for three to five months at a time for up to 20 years. The plan is dangerously ridiculous in many ways.

First, the entire effort will most likely be futile. Erosion will continue to occur. Malibu has plenty of money (enough to change the tides?) to pay for such nonsense, and the quarry won't run out of sand; but everything related to this transfer will suffer enormous damage and cause great danger. Running hundreds of double-belly-dump rigs over Grimes Canyon would nearly shut down this important corridor to normal traffic. Traffic would be constantly backed-up. I witnessed one such truck overturn at Hwy. 23 and Hwy. 126 when the driver took the left turn too fast.

One solution to avoid this disastrous idea might be to reestablish the beach by dredging off- shore. After all, that's where the sand went. Dredges aren't pretty, but they work. Or maybe Malibu could start chewing away at the cliffs behind the beach front. It's the same kind of stuff that Grimes Canyon has, and it would be immediately available. Even if this unlikely plan succeeded that success would be swept away with the first big storm - that's what waves and tides do.

I try to visualize that constant train of hundreds of truckloads of sand traveling down Grimes Canyon, through Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ventura, Oxnard, down Hwy. 101 to Malibu - for years. There would be an exponential increase of traffic accidents and massive breakdown of roadways.

Find the man who concocted this nightmarish idea, and FIRE HIM!

That's just a beach too far.