State parks officials are asking the California Coastal Commission to approve emergency repairs that were made last winter to a rock revetment to protect campsites threatened by coastal erosion at the San Elijo campground in Encinitas. “Over the years, campsites have been lost as the bluff eroded out from under them, and currently the vehicular turnaround at the southern end of the internal circulation road is at risk,” states a report to be presented at Wednesday’s Coastal Commission meeting in San Diego. “Should the southernmost turnaround be lost … the state fire marshal would order the 14 campsites between the southern turnaround and the closest turnaround to the north be closed due to lack of adequate access for emergency vehicles,” the report states. The park has about 165 campsites, some equipped for large trailers and recreational vehicles, on a narrow strip of bluff-top land between the beach and Coast Highway 101. The southern end of the campground is the lowest, near the outlet from the San Elijo Lagoon, and because of the location it erodes more rapidly than the rest of the park. Storms in the winter of 2022-23 were among the worst in years, causing significant flooding and erosion statewide. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Jan. 4, 2023. The California Department of Parks and Recreation obtained authorization in February 2023 to repair the storm-damaged revetment by bringing in 1,900 tons of boulders weighing two to five tons each and 1,000 tons (670 cubic yards) of beach cobble. The rocks and cobble were added five to 15 feet landward of the existing barrier, resulting in a revetment approximately 240 feet long and 30 feet at its widest, tapering at its northern and southern ends. Commission staffers are recommending approval of the parks department’s request to keep the emergency repairs. Usually the commission opposes the use of hardened structures such as revetments because of their long-term negative effects on the coastline. However, in this case the staff determined the device should remain to prevent a new emergency at the campground and to protect a popular public recreation facility. “The installation or retention of shoreline armoring such as a revetment has the potential to increase local or downcoast erosion,” the report states. Besides occupying a portion of the sandy beach and making it unavailable for recreation, revetments cause several different types of erosion, the report states. They hold back upland and bluff sediment that would otherwise erode and enter the natural transport system, hastening beach narrowing. Additional sand losses occur at the site or nearby whenever a hard structure is built along an eroding coastline, the report states. “The shoreline will eventually migrate landward on either side of the structure, resulting in gradual loss of the beach,” it states. “Local scour is often observed at the down-drift end of armoring as a result of wave reflection and would also hasten the loss of sand at what is already a narrow beach.” San Elijo State Beach became part of the state parks system in 1949 and was designated a state beach in 1969. It’s unclear when the rock revetment was first added, but similar structures have been added along much of San Diego County’s coastline.