The post includes some background and an update on the issue. It also includes a longer interview with Yvon Chouinard, posted below, on the historic efforts to protect and restore the Ventura River:
Wild and Scenic Environmental Films "On Tour" will visit over 100 cities this year. The Ventura Hilsides Conservancy will host the traveling Film Festival at the Poinsettia Pavilion in Ventura on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13 starting at 7pm.
A different lineup will screen each night. Friday night's theme is land and has some great family short films. Saturday night's theme will be water, headlining our local film Watershed Revolution.
Last night Ventura City Council approved the contract plans and specifications for the Surfers Point Managed Shoreline Retreat Initial Phase project and authorized the advertisement for bids to be received by Tuesday, April 13, 2010.
According to the staff report:
The Surfers Point project has now reached a major milestone with construction ready tocommence on nearly half of the ultimate project. The major components of this phase willinclude removing nearly half of the existing damaged Fairgrounds parking lot closest to theVentura River, replacing this parking with an adjacent temporary surfaced lot, relocatingthe class I bike path, placing a significant amount of the buried cobble needed to provideerosion protection for the relocated improvements and covering it with enough sand foreasier access, shortening and abandoning a portion of Shoreline Drive, and installingstorm water quality improvements.
On February 22, 2010 the City Council approved the purchase of cobble rock and sand needed for the ... project, at a total cost of $600,000. Purchasing the needed cobble and sand up front for the initial phase of the Project would remove a large unknown factor to contractors who would be bidding on this Project and should provide the City much more competitive bids on the overall Project.
The full project cost for the Surfers Point Managed Shoreline Retreat project is currently estimated at $9.6 million. Appropriations for the project are approximately $4.88 million resulting from prior grants received from the State Coastal Conservancy, State Coastal Resources, and Federal TEA-21 transportation/bikeway grants. The initial phase project that will be constructed this fall is estimated to cost $2.7 million.
This American Express commercial ran nationwide during last night's Oscar awards as part of their Take Part campaign.
Thanks to Patagonia and Yvon Chouinard for putting Matilija Dam in the national spotlight!
Patagonia is a founding member of the Matilija Coalition and has tirelessly supported the long battle to remove this defunct dam from the Ventura River.
On Friday I was pleased to have the opportunity to host two staff members from Surfrider Europe, Nathalie VanDenBroek and Cendrine Templier, on a tour of the Ventura area. We visited Surfers Point, Sanjon drain, and Matilija Dam.
The Ventura River Ecosystem project is an example of many of the issues that Surfrider Foundation activists are dealing with around the world. Beach erosion and coastal management, water quality, and watershed issues are at the core of our work.
Surfrider Europe is working on similar campaigns. Their focus is on water quality, 'artificial coasts' (seawalls), and 'macro debris' (plastic in the ocean.)
Tsunami is a Japanese word represented by two characters: "tsu" and "nami". The character "tsu" means harbor, while the character "nami" means wave. In the past, tsunamis were often referred to as "tidal waves" by many English speaking people. Although the term "tidal wave" is a misnomer, the onshore effect is similar to the tide rapidly rising and falling.
On Saturday February 27, a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit the coast of Chile. This is the same fault that produced a 9.5 quake which killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless in 1920. ( Saturday’s quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.)
A Tsunami alert was issued for the entire Pacific Ocean. Although not as catastrophic as it could have been, the effect was seen throughout the Pacific rim.
I went down to the harbor to see if the effect was visible, and when I arrived I could see a strong current that was rapidly filling the harbor. By the time I got out to the end of the south jetty, the harbor was already draining back out. I filmed the out and in flow for about an hour, and it seemed like the amplitude had dropped. Later in the day I went back down to Marina Park, and the surge was still very strong.
Reports indicated that the initial waves were the greatest, having an amplitude of plus and minus 3 feet (6 feet total!) inside the harbor. The cycle seemed to have a period of around 20 minutes, which cooincided with many of the reports around the world, including Santa Barbara and San Diego. The tide gauges show that the tsunami continued for over 48 hours.
PAGO PAGO AS 0.70M / 2.3FT 12MIN VANUATU 0.15M / 0.5FT 22MIN KAWAIHAE HAWAII 0.52M / 1.7FT 24MIN ACAPULCO MX 0.62M / 2.0FT 26MIN SANTA MONICA CA 0.41M / 1.4FT 32MIN SAN DIEGO CA 0.13M / 0.4FT 20MIN SANTA BARBARA CA 0.53M / 1.7FT 20MIN
The Ventura Harbor seemed to have a physical response to this frequency. Harbors and bays are known to have a 'natural frequency,' which is a function of the length and volume of the body of water. It is possible that the Ventura Harbor was seiching, or experiencing a 'standing wave' phenomenon in response to the tsunami.
A tidal surge estimated at 3 feet rolled into Ventura Harbor about 1 p.m. and unmoored 14 residential docks in the Ventura Keys neighborhood... the Ventura Harbor Master’s Office said there was some erosion and navigational buoys came loose in the inner harbor area, but there were no major incidents. Officials said they focused on getting offshore boats into the harbor. A sailing regatta sponsored by the Pierpont Bay Yacht Club was returning to the harbor and needed assistance from the Harbor Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard to navigate the main channel.
This is video of the harbor entrance taken between 1pm and 2pm, and again after 5 pm.
Another video was posted on YouTube, and showed the effect inside the harbor at around the same time:
Paul Jenkin is the Ventura Campaign Coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, and founder of the Matilija Coalition. The Surfrider Foundation is an international environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the world’s waves and beaches through conservation, activism, research, and education (CARE).
Since 1994, Paul has worked to restore the coast and watershed where he lives, in Ventura, California.
