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State Rejects Emergency Repairs To Shore Up SF Ocean Beach

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) -- State officials have rejected emergency repairs San Francisco made to shore up storm-battered Ocean Beach.

The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday said the city needs to come up with a long-term plan to protect the beach from erosion. It unanimously declined to retroactively approve the emergency repairs made in 1997 and 2010.

Environmentalists have said such repairs, which can involve putting down boulders and concrete, harm the beach more than they help it.

But the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission said they need to be undertaken to protect important pipelines and pumps in the area from erosion.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that after Wednesday's decision, the city may not receive approval to shore up the area during the next storm that causes erosion.

Jeff Hansen, coastal oceanographer at UC Santa Cruz and the USGS and one of the authors of the report that surveyed the 2010 winter storm's damage along the Pacific Coast, said these storms caused significant erosion, about 200 feet. The impact to Ocean Beach was the largest than previous storms recorded, Hansen said.

KCBS' Rebecca Corral Interviews Coastal Oceanographer Jeff Hansen:

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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