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Whenever sand or gravel is removed from the ecosystem, a cost, often a substantial one, is incurred downstream. Yet in project cost estimates for commercial shipping, building dams to provide water and power, or mining for construction, the cost to the coastline of sediment loss is not included. If it is referred to at all, it is considered an unpriced externality and largely dismissed.

We have attempted to calculate the amount of sand and gravel lost to the beaches and to estimate the actual cost of those externalities, for they are only “external” to those doing the extracting. To ignore them is poor accounting as far as society as a whole is concerned. To those who live along the coast or enjoy the shore, their loss is of major consequence.

If we as a society choose to tacitly accept the underpricing of certain endeavors by ignoring the negative “downstream” consequences, we should also bear the cost of compensating those who suffer losses. Yet as public monies available for that purpose become increasingly scarce, more and more often the damage goes unrepaired. In the meantime, the costs—in this case to beach communities—mount, while those who profit from the mining or dam building incur no costs from using up the natural resource, and therefore have no incentive to avoid sediment losses to the shoreline.

The economic impact of sediment losses can be estimated in three ways: in terms of replacement cost, remediation cost (which attempts to compensate for past and future damages), and repair cost (or “fixing” the shoreline to protect against future damage).

Rather than incur these costs, a far more attractive alternative for industry would be to explore more aggressively the alternatives to mining virgin aggregate.

Copyright 2005 © California Coastal Conservancy All Rights Reserved.