Rock wall grows at Westward Beach as Barrels surf break vanishes Play

Out west near Zuma Beach, work continued late into the night Thursday as county crews installed a rock revetment wall aimed at saving the beachfront intersection in front of the Sunset Restaurant.

Some residents of the apartments up the hill got grumpy with county crews working late into the night, but the sand can only be scooped out and the rocks put down during low tide.

LA County Beaches and Harbors is extending the wall of rocks up the beach toward Zuma. The surf break called Barrels is long gone.

Nicole Mooradian said between 325 and 375 linear feet of emergency revetment have been installed so far.

The City of Malibu requested an additional 125 linear feet planned at the request of the city of Malibu, for a total of between 450 and 500 linear feet — up tp and includong protection for the intersection of Westward Beach Road at Birdview Avenie.

This is where there used to be a beach called Barrels.

The county spokesperson says putting sand back to replace what washed away is not practical.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has established a "Marine Protected Reserve" wrapping around Point Dume to protect marine life. And as part of that they don't want any nourishment projects — trucking sand in and distributing it on the beach — within those state marine reserves. They want everything left as it is, says LA County.

But the same state agency says the sand west of Zuma Creek is not a state preserve — it's a Marine Conservation Area. And adding sand at a state conservation area is legal.

So here we have two halves of the same beach ... quite literally one beach split in two by the State of Claifornia's red line, beaches separated quite literally by a line in the sand. And as a result, Westward Beach may be doomed by the same state agency that's supposed to be protecting it.

KBUU has an email in to California's Department of State Fish and Wildlife, to see what they have to say.