Del Mar's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, Sept. 22, to declare a local state of emergency over sand choking the San Dieguito Lagoon.
The declaration, first reported by The Coast News Group, came at the end of a 5½-hour meeting. City Manager Ashley Jones said the move pressures the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Southern California Edison to speed up dredging before predicted "super" El Niño storms arrive in winter 2026-2027.
The vote landed the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a statewide emergency ahead of the El Niño season. Forecasters put the chance of a very strong event above 90%.
Why the lagoon matters
Assistant City Manager Clem Brown told the council that when the lagoon inlet narrows or closes, the lagoon cannot absorb storm surge and rain. That raises the flood risk for low-lying neighborhoods along its edges.
A city staff report said the lagoon was last dredged roughly two years ago. The next dredging is scheduled for November, but the current permit from the Corps allows removal of only 16,000 cubic yards of sand.
Council members and staff said that volume may not be enough. If Lake Hodges dam reaches capacity during winter storms and is opened or overflows, the lagoon would need far more capacity to handle the flow.
Where the sand came from
In 2024, the Corps deposited more than 1 million cubic yards of sand on beaches in Encinitas and Solana Beach. Waves and currents have since carried much of it south toward Del Mar, where it has piled up in the lagoon and narrowed the inlet. Photos shared at the meeting showed the inlet choked with sand.
Under a 1992 agreement with the California Coastal Commission, Southern California Edison pays for lagoon dredging as environmental mitigation for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Edison relies on permits from the Corps and the Coastal Commission, which set how much sediment it can remove.
What the city wants next
Beyond the emergency declaration, the council directed staff to ask the Corps to raise the permitted dredging volume from 16,000 to 50,000 cubic yards and to request that Edison expedite the work.
Jones said the declaration enables the city to seek reimbursement if it has to act on its own.
Councilmember Dan Quirk asked whether Del Mar could perform the dredging itself. Brown said it could, but the 16,000-cubic-yard permit cap would still apply. Staff did not have a cost estimate.
"At some point, we can't let bureaucracy put our city at risk," Quirk said. "… We actually need action."
The city is awaiting a report from the Corps with current sedimentation data for the lagoon.
