Thus, under California law a geologist can confidently predict in the first year that a proposed development will need no seawall, then come back a year later and proclaim God's wrath necessitates a giant seawall on the public beach. It is the public and the public beach that pay for the geologists' incompetence. Indeed, the worse the professional advice, the more money the geo-sayer makes. Why seawalls are bad For those readers new to the wallification of the California coast, seawalls are ushering in a variety of catastrophic environmental impacts along the ocean, from San Diego to Oregon. The public beach, belonging to all, is sacrificed for the view of one private property owner.
Seawalls also eliminate and obstruct natural bluff erosion and beach nourishment.
Moreover, landscaping and green lawns saturate bluffs with water and cause their further slippage. Worse, the walls are on the public beach. They eliminate beach access and sit on top of public resources. Worse yet, they cause scouring and increase erosion in front and up and down coast, or both. The current legal situation is certainly a geologists' full employment act.