Encinitas sand replenishment project underway NBC 7 San Diego [Video]

Brian Renner and his son Maverick are Encinitas locals, and they came to the beach to watch phase 2 of the sand replenishment project, which was formerly called the Encinitas-Solana Beach Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project.

“[Maverick] literally has a little place at home that has sand and miniature versions of what we see behind us,” Renner said.

The process starts with a dredge bringing in the sand from a borrow site just south of Solana Beach.

“The dredge goes down to that exact location and puts down essentially two suction hoses, and it just kind of drives almost like a vacuum along the ocean floor,” Todd Mierau, coastal zone program administrator, said.

It sucks up to 4,500 cubic yards of sand and then brings it to a hose line off the Moonlight State Beach shore. Then, a compressor pumps it onto the shore.

“It’s a mixture of sand, sediment and water — mostly water,” Mierau said.

As …