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One year to the day after releasing a 46-page report recommending a major modification to the Long Beach Breakwater, a retired engineer follows up his first act with a new study.  It’s slimmer, better, and just might work. 


“I grew up on this beach,” says Bud Johnson, a retired engineer and Long Beach native who has never strayed far from the ocean.  “This beach was my life, and it kept me out of trouble.”

So Johnson had no problem putting himself through the trouble of improving that very beach, producing a massive breakwater study last year that recommended created two 1800-foot gaps in the structure that would allow pollution to be carried out to sea.  Johnson worked for months to get the study into the right hands, and eventually found the offices of City Councilmembers, Port of Long Beach officials and the Parks & Recreation Department.  It eventually was passed onto the engineering firm Moffatt , which is in the process of conducting its own official study and will recommend action to the City within the next few months, relying on some parts of Johnson’s research.

But Johnson didn’t rest on his laurels for long, immediately going back to work on the report.  Last Tuesday, he finally completed the new 12-page study, and today we have it available for you to download and examine.

Click on this link to download Johnson's newest breakwater study.

After further examining his first report, Johnson realized that making two 1800-foot gaps in the breakwater was probably not necessary.  After looking at flow and circulation charts, he realized that one 1800-foot gap would be more effective and half as costly.

“There is no flow pattern indicating that a second gap would help,” he explains.

Removing about 15 feet of the rocky structure below water level would allow enough water flow to exit the harbor and drift out to sea, helping to clean up Long Beach’s notoriously toxic waters.  It likely will not bring waves to the quiet shores, but will certainly create a better opportunity to ease pollution as the muck-flow known as the L.A. River will exit out to the ocean.

Johnson’s other idea has just as much to do with tourism as the environment.  In his studies, he noticed a natural sandbar had been built along the breakwater, creating an underwater habitat for wildlife of all kinds.  Why not, he thought, turn the area into a recreational diving spot and promote it?

“Mother nature is building the sandbar for us,” he says.  “We could be known not as a surfing attraction but as a diving paradise.”

He recommends creating a “Restricted Water Area” lined with buoys to keep ships away. The area is ripe for natural kelp beds that divers thrive on, and Johnson believes that if correctly handled, the sandbar could become a hot spot for divers.

But it is the breakwater gap that will turn the most heads.  It’s referred to in the report as “Johnson’s Gate,” although he pokes fun at himself by saying that it may one day be called “Johnson’s Folly.”  Zing!  In truth, though, he’s completely confident that the ideas in his report are useful, cost-effective, and plausible.

“I can’t see negatives on this thing, only positives,” he says, welcoming any feedback or criticism that will help improve his ideas.  “I’m not going to give up on this.  If it goes wrong, there’s a reason.  And I’ll work on it.”

The plan will certainly require an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), and Johnson estimates cost to be around about $10-12 million.  That includes all costs, he says, which will be about 60% permits and paperwork, and 40% actual construction.  Of course, there’s also the Federal Government (who own the breakwater) and Army Corps of Engineers (who built the breakwater) to deal with, but for now the study just needs to find the right people.

It’s a lot of work and a long process, but Johnson now has the connections and the ear of the right people to get his new study into good hands.  With Moffat & Nichol preparing their recommendations for action to the City, we’ll soon see where the future is headed for that pile of rocks off our coast.  And Bud Johnson will be waiting and watching, eager to have his work included.

“For me, this is my chance to make a difference, that’s all,” he says.  “Yeah, it won’t create any waves.  But we can sure make it better, and I’m just trying to give back what it gave to me.”

By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor

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