EDITOR'S NOTE: Multimedia journalist Logan Hall spoke with a Newport Beach City Council member about the sand replenishment project. Click the arrow above to watch the video.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — A group of local politicians celebrated a sand replenishment project years in the making but cautioned it may be years before it gets started.

Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., helped secure $15.5 million to ship sand to the California coast and feed the eroding shorelines. 

“I made a promise to bring sand funding to our district,” she said. “We were one natural disaster from devastation.”

The group gathered at the Newport Beach Balboa Pier, where heavy equipment rolled by on the nearby beach, building up a steep berm of sand for anticipated heavy tides.

Steel said sand erosion is a public safety issue, with lawmakers long ignoring the urgency of the problem.

Sand replenishment was supposed to have been delivered to the coast for decades but was suspended shortly after it began in the 1960s. The new plan calls for sand replenishment every five years, an interval built around the ocean currents and method of distribution.

The plan calls for 1.7 million cubic yards of sand to be piled up off Sunset Beach, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to erode over the course of five years, depositing the sand along the shores of Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

The sand can only be deployed during certain windows of the year. Sand will not be delivered between March 17 and Sept. 1 to avoid interference with the environment, most notably the famed grunion run.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley congratulated the joint effort to bring the money to the coast.

“That’s the kind of effort we’re going to need if we’re going to protect our coast,” she said. “It’s a great example of how we can come together in a bipartisan way.”

Col. Julie Balten, commander of the Los Angeles district of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the sand may arrive in 2024 or even 2025.

“Right now, we’re in a fantastic place. The design for this project is 95% complete,” she said. “Now that we have the funding, it’s on us to deliver.”