The Case for a Second Opening to San Diego Bay
The United States Navy base in San Diego is one of the largest and most important in the world, especially with respect to confronting the rising risk of drone and hypersonic ballistic missile threats from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and non-state bad actors. And, yet, the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of the Navy have long left this base in the vulnerable position of having only one exit point for its massive flotilla of warships. The time has come to create a second functional opening for this indispensable base.
The integrity and viability of the U.S. Navy base in San Diego is not only of critical importance to America, but also to the entire free world. Think about the world without the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines fully operational and capable of projecting U.S. military power in order to keep the peace. In short order, belligerents all around the world would be on the move.
During President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s visit in 1935 he remarked that San Diego desperately needed a backdoor to its bay based on national security. Roosevelt, who was assistant secretary of the Navy during World War I, recognized the significant danger and promised $20 million ($500 million in today’s dollars) in federal funding to make it happen. Roosevelt’s project never materialized because of World War II — nor have multiple attempts since — and so San Diego and the U.S. Navy continue to tempt fate with a single bay door.
The threat-level President Roosevelt foresaw in 1935 has exponentially grown in recent years. The Ukraine War and Iran War are foreshadowing an escalating risk to infrastructure and military bases (everywhere) from unmanned drones and hypersonic ballistic missiles.
Bad actor eyes-in-the-sky (and on the ground) can see exactly when a PASHA car carrier ship laden down with 2,500 cars enters San Diego Bay’s single channel. Likewise, these same eyes can see when a U.S. Nuclear Aircraft Carrier is entering and exiting the bay. If one of these ships is targeted by missiles and / or drones and sunk in San Diego’s single channel, it could be a year or more before the bottled-up U.S. Navy can exit. (This is why the battleship USS Nevada intentionally beached herself during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor…to avoid being sunk in the single channel and bottling up the harbor.)
If San Diego Bay were successfully bottled up with its three Nuclear Aircraft Carriers and dozens of other Navy ships and assets, the United States would face a difficult time prosecuting an all-out war against a near-peer adversary.
This situation also makes San Diego itself a significant and growing target for those powerful nations (and non-state bad actors) who might like to disable one of America’s largest naval bases. And this is not just a U.S. Navy issue — it also presents a significant threat to civilian lives and businesses in San Diego.
Why are we allowing this risk to continue unabated when it can affordably be resolved by establishing a second bay opening at the south end of Coronado’s Silver Strand, an ultra-thin strip of undeveloped land?
With two bay openings, a harbor master can then manage ship traffic so that we never allow both channels to simultaneously have large ships traversing them. This will eliminate the temptation for bad actors to launch a sneak attack. Thus, we significantly reduce the threat to both the U.S. Navy and San Diego.
A second bay opening will also launch a desperately-needed environmental rebirth of San Diego Bay, and especially the long-neglected South Bay. In fact, this project will help preserve the beauty and natural environment of South Bay for generations to come. This wondrous area is home to thousands of migrating birds, sea turtles, fish, eelgrass, and even two pink flamingos known as the Pink Floyds.
With respect to environmental benefits, Los Angeles Times previously reported: “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched an intensive study of the channel project, even building a huge, 2,500-square-foot model of the bay to test out the consequences of changing tidal currents by opening up the South Bay to the ocean…The verdict: the second entrance would improve the tidal flushing action of the bay without eroding the deep-water channels used by commercial and military ships.”
Furthermore, a second bay opening will ignite an unprecedented economic boom and renaissance of opportunities for the entire San Diego / Tijuana region. This highly integrated binational and bilingual region of 21 cities is widely known as the Cities of Life and it welcomes the progress and new opportunities this project will bring forward.
This project will help protect $100 – $250 billion of U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps assets (depending on what ships / air wings / armaments are in port at any given moment), create thousands of new civilian jobs, as well as spur a regional economic boom. By any measurement, this bay opening project would be money wisely invested.
A second bay opening merits a serious U.S. Navy and San Diego community conversation, along with an in depth study by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. And because it is adjacent and interrelated, it should be studied in conjunction with a proposed Solution to the Tijuana Sewage Crisis, known as the TJ Dilution Solution. This unique concept may necessitate a third breakwater into the Pacific Ocean, and the three breakwaters should be studied as a group.
The following four position pieces cumulatively present a near-bulletproof case for moving forward as soon as possible:
- THE NATIONAL SECURITY CASE FOR A SECOND OPENING TO SAN DIEGO BAY:
San Diego Bay Needs a Second Opening to Protect the U.S. Pacific Fleet – Times of SD
PDF version for emailing and printing - THE ENVIRONMENTAL CASE FOR A SECOND OPENING TO SAN DIEGO BAY:
The Environmental Case for Creating a 2nd Opening to San Diego Bay – Times of San Diego
PDF version for emailing and printing - THE ECONOMIC BOOM CASE FOR A SECOND OPENING TO SAN DIEGO BAY:
Business Will Boom With a Second San Diego Bay Opening – Times of San Diego
PDF version for emailing and printing - THE MARINE CORPS CASE FOR A SECOND OPENING TO SAN DIEGO BAY:
The Marine Corps Case for a Second Opening to San Diego Bay– Times of San Diego
PDF version for emailing and printing
Endorsement Team
The following individuals and organizations have endorsed the concept of establishing a second opening to San Diego Bay based on the arguments presented herein. We invite everyone to join us in endorsing this concept. To add your name, please email us using the website contact form below.
Point Persons
George Mullen – Mullen Biography – Principal of StudioRevolution
Malin Burnham – Burnham Biography – Chairman of Burnham Center for Community Adv.
Rudy Ramirez – Ramirez Biography – Chula Vista City Council, 2006 – 2015
Colonel Patrick J. Gough, USMC (ret) – Gough Biography – CEO of Poseidon Consulting LLC
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