The Movement to Tear Down the Long Beach Breakwater

LONG BEACH, CA--When I first began attending Long Beach State University, I was under the impression that the city beach closest to our school–Long Beach City Beach–would be congested with students looking for good surf on a daily basis, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, most of my peers actively avoid the city beach, instead making a slightly longer commute to Seal Beach instead. This is, unfortunately, because of Long Beach’s artificial breakwater, which I have become all-too-familiar with during my time at the university. The breakwater blocks any surf from entering Long Beach, leaving the ocean placid and calm while also allowing pollution to enter it, too. Seal Beach, although very close to Long Beach, largely escapes the negative effects of the breakwater, allowing for waves to form and clean water to come in and out. Personally, when I have time before, after, or (rarely) in-between classes, Seal Beach is the place that I go to the most often as well, for the reasons listed above.

And going to Seal Beach instead of the Long Beach City Beach is a fine temporary solution to the problem of the breakwater, too, but it’s not a permanent one. The best solution to the issues that the breakwater causes is to tear down the breakwater, something that has been attempted many times before. Of course, while an ideal remedy to the problem, this will likely never happen. Petitions to take down the breakwater have happened time and time again, and sometimes they have even made it to the highest rungs of the government–such as the military–before being shut down. Ultimately, this is because the military itself constructed the breakwater decades ago, and still has the final say on what to do with it–as of right now, they’ve decided that it needs to stay in place.

My hope, though, is that despite the breakwater remaining, Long Beach and Los Angeles County can do their best to mitigate how polluted their waters are as a result of it. With the Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028, and with Long Beach being used for several events, it only makes sense for an initiative to clean LB’s waters to be implemented–I, personally, would happily participate. For the foreseeable future, Long Beach might not be the “Waikiki of Southern California”, but we can at least make the sea clean for beachgoers to splash in, and bring out the beauty that our city has to offer for an international audience to see.