SANTA CRUZ — After the San Lorenzo River naturally breached Friday, the city of Santa Cruz is urging beachgoers to recreate safely near the ever-shifting and potentially dangerous river lagoon. “There’s been two natural breaches,” said Ryan Haley, assistant engineer with Santa Cruz Public Works. “We had a couple of wave events that shoaled it up for maybe about eight hours, so it didn’t build up so high.
Then it started to trickle over the top and that’s how the natural breaching happens and that happened twice. According to a statement from the city, the Fire Department’s Marine Safety Division monitored the natural breach of the river mouth Friday. Wednesday morning, a contractor used a bulldozer to relocate the river mouth closer to San Lorenzo Point and build a sand berm to prevent the river from meandering northward.
“This will keep the river here, which will do a couple of things,” said Haley. “It will protect Main Beach from future meandering and it will help with the culvert repair when we pick that back up next month.” While the sand is getting pushed around, the city asks that everyone stay away from the river mouth and surrounding area.
Beachgoers should respect all posted signage and guidance from city workers because the conditions during a breach can create strong currents and hazardous situations that can result in injury or death. At the river mouth Wednesday morning, Haley, who serves as the project manager for the San Lorenzo River la.
