Oceanside could see harbor channel dredged twice in 2026 to reduce risks

Oceanside and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are recommending that the Oceanside Harbor channel be dredged twice in 2026 to transition the annual maintenance procedure from the spring to the fall.

The city and the Corps also are trying to expedite the usual spring excavation to remove a sand bar that grew more rapidly than usual near the harbor entrance, creating a hazard for boats that enter or leave the channel.

The Oceanside City Council declared a local emergency in November in an unsuccessful effort to get an early, unscheduled dredging to clear the channel. The next opportunity appears to be in March, though the city is still pushing for earlier if possible.

“We wanted to have an emergency dredge immediately,” Mayor Esther Sanchez said last week at a special meeting of the city’s Harbor and Beaches Advisory Committee.

Harbor safety has become a critical issue, Sanchez said. At least two boats overturned in rough conditions and needed rescues near the entrance this fall.

“It’s gotten to the point where only very experienced boaters can get through there,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez spoke as a guest, along with three other Oceanside residents, at a special meeting the committee held to review the harbor situation.

The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for keeping the channel safe for navigation into and out of the side-by-side Oceanside and Camp Pendleton harbors. As a secondary benefit, the sediment removed is used to widen Oceanside beaches.

A survey of the channel in December showed the sand shoal’s growth had slowed and an emergency dredge was not needed, said Brian Kim, a Corps of Engineers navigation project manager from Los Angeles who participated in Monday’s meeting.

Still, the Corps “is doing everything we can to accelerate” the dredging this spring, Kim said. The contract could be awarded in early March, which could start the work a couple weeks earlier than in the past.

Kim and Oceanside’s Coastal Zone Administrator Jayme Timberlake said studies show the rapid shoaling that occurred in 2025 could be avoided by moving the annual dredging from the spring to the fall.

“Spring dredging is not ideal for navigation or for sediment distribution on city beaches,” Timberlake said.

Winter or fall dredging would better protect beachfront recreational facilities, public infrastructure and private property against seasonal storms and high tides, she said.

The shift also would increase the likelihood that the excavated sand will be carried south by the ocean currents to sand-starved areas such as Buccaneer Beach, instead of pushing it back into the harbor channel.

Two representatives of the local nonprofit Save Oceanside Sand said they support the switch to dredging in the fall.

“We have an opportunity to do something here that the science backs up,” said Bob Ashton, the SOS board president and an Oceanside resident since 1962. “I encourage you to endorse this 100%.”

Pamela Myers, a resident of a North Pacific Street condominium for 30 years, said the city should keep the spring schedule that for decades has widened beaches north of the Oceanside Municipal Pier just before Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer.

“This just doesn’t make sense,” Myers said. “People come to the beach for the sand. Even now there’s rocks. If they change the schedule, we’re going to get more rocks.”

City Manager Jonathan Borrego said the proposal to change the dredge schedule has been discussed for at least 20 years.

“There are a lot of opinions out there one way or another on this matter,” Borrego said.

The committee did not vote on the proposal, which is expected to go to the Oceanside City Council for a decision in the next month or two.

If approved, the fall dredging will require additional funding from Congress and a new or amended contract with Manson Construction. The company has offices in Long Beach and Seattle and contracts work along the entire West Coast.