The Desal Wells Moved Out of Doheny's Campground. The Campground Is Closing Anyway.

On October 7, the California Coastal Commission approved a change to the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project. The change moves its four seawater slant wells out of the Doheny State Beach campground and into the North Day Use Area across San Juan Creek. Those wells were the original reason the campground had to close. The closure is still coming anyway. South Coast Water District officials told the Orange County Register that the planned campground renovation will go ahead even though the wells are moving.

So the roughly two years without camping at Doheny no longer come from a water project. They come from a full rebuild of the campground by California State Parks. The water district's delays decide when that rebuild starts, and for anyone who camps at Doheny, parks in its day-use lots or brings visiting family there, the delays have pushed the start later.

Why closing the campground was part of the plan

When the Coastal Commission first approved the desalination permit, the slant-well pods and pipelines were supposed to go inside the campground. According to the Commission's September 24, 2026 staff report, installing that well field would have closed the campground for about 18 to 24 months. State Parks was already planning its own campground revitalization. So the district and State Parks agreed to do the two jobs together, closing the gates once instead of twice.

The Register's May 2 report laid out that reasoning. State Parks senior environmental scientist Riley Pratt described aging infrastructure and flooding in the campground. South Coast Water District General Manager Rick Shintaku described timing the campground work with desalination construction so the campground would close only once.

Four wells, a new location

Then the geology changed the plan. New borings showed that the sandy channel sediments the wells were meant to reach are narrower than expected and sit farther west. Wells drilled from the campground would have gone through wide layers of clay and hit bedrock early, so they couldn't reliably supply seawater. The district looked at longer wells and different angles that would have kept the wellheads in the campground. It ruled those out, partly because longer wells would have had to pass under the SOCWA ocean outfall.

Here is what the approved amendment puts in the North Day Use Area instead:

• Four wellheads set in below-grade concrete vaults in the eastern part of the picnic area
• Wells reaching about 1,000 feet seaward and ending 75 to 130 feet below the seafloor
• A small electrical control building, about 12 by 25 feet, next to a new public restroom
• Trenchless pipelines running diagonally from the day-use parking lot, under Pacific Coast Highway and San Juan Creek, to the plant site

The plant itself is planned for district-owned land at Pacific Coast Highway and Stonehill Drive, next to San Juan Creek.

That leaves one desal component inside the campground. It's a short section of raw-water pipe, capped at both ends and held in reserve in case a fifth well is ever needed. It will be laid during the State Parks rebuild so the campground doesn't have to be torn up again later. Activating it would require separate environmental review and a new or amended coastal permit.

What State Parks plans to build

With the wells gone, the campground work is State Parks' own project, called the Doheny State Beach Campground Climate Resilience & Modernization Project. State Parks leads it, with South Coast Water District as a partner. According to the April 28, 2026 public presentation, the design carries out recommendations from the park's 2004 General Plan and a 2025 sea-level-rise vulnerability assessment.

The district's project page also lists new water, sewer and electrical hookups, plus new restrooms, landscaping and interpretive area. Treat the table as a concept, not a final plan. The Register reported in May that the layout was not yet final design. The campground's own coastal permit application has been submitted and, as of the September staff report, was still under review by the Commission's South Coast District staff. The April presentation listed funding for construction as one of the next steps.

Why the closure won't come before fall 2027

The two projects are still linked even though the wells have moved. The staff report says State Parks and the district plan to overlap the two construction periods to make mobilizing crews and equipment more efficient and to shorten the total disruption at the beach. That keeps the campground closure tied to the desal schedule, and the desal schedule has slipped.

The Register's October 8 report gave the reasons. The district is waiting on a possible $63 million federal grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, with a decision expected in early 2027. The project already has $40 million in state and federal grants, and partner agencies are holding off on commitments until the new grant is decided. The latest guaranteed maximum price is about $296 million, up from $140 million when the Commission first approved the project in 2022. Weather matters too. A key part of the site sits on the beach, and Shintaku said that if El Niño storms stopped work after construction began, the contractor could collect roughly $35,000 a day while idle.

Other approvals are still pending. The State Lands Commission was scheduled to review the changes on October 21, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board is expected to act in early 2027. Marc Serna, the district's assistant general manager and chief engineer, said the approvals should be in place by April to early summer. The Register reported that the campground won't need to close for construction before fall 2027. That is later than State Parks' May notice, which promised only that the campground would stay open through at least the end of 2026. The district's page now says the campground stays open through summer 2027 and projects reopening in 2029.

What the day-use side loses during construction

During the nearly two years of construction, an estimated 225 day-use parking spaces will close, along with a picnic area and the campground itself, according to the Register. Coastal Commissioner Caryl Hart asked for measures to offset the lost parking, especially in summer, and asked that the campground and mitigation plans come back to the Commission as one package:

"While we may have approval today for the movement of the slant wells, it's the whole package we really need to consider."

According to the same report, Commission staff said two offsets are being discussed:

• Shuttles to make up for the closed parking
• Year-round camping at San Onofre State Beach, which currently closes in the off-season

On the well side, officials said there is no permanent loss of parking proposed in the North Day Use Area, and the district will replace and upgrade the public restroom and restore the picnic area.

Some parking is limited even now. In an October 15 update after Tropical Storm Rachel, State Parks said Doheny was open but parts of its parking were closed or restricted while crews cleaned up and serviced the storm drains.

Using the campground before it closes

The campground has more time left than the spring notices suggested, but reservations work differently now. Since July 1, the booking window has been three months instead of six. A site for October 1, 2026, for example, opened for booking on July 1, 2026. Here's how that works in practice:

1. Count back three months. The State Parks notice explains the shorter window as a way to keep reservations flexible while the closure date is still unsettled. Bookings for spring and summer 2027 open on a rolling basis through ReserveCalifornia.
2. Watch the spring 2027 decisions. The federal grant decision and the Regional Water Board action are both expected in early 2027, and they will shape when construction starts.
3. Use the beach cleanups to see the site. The Doheny State Beach page lists monthly cleanups on November 21 and December 19.
4. Check conditions before driving in. Storm-related parking limits were in effect as of mid-October.

When the gates reopen, which the district projects for 2029, campers will find fewer but larger sites, set about four feet higher and farther back from the water than the campground they know today.

Big public projects like the Doheny rebuild and the plant planned at Pacific Coast Highway and Stonehill Drive are part of how we follow what's changing along Dana Point's coast. If you'd like to talk about what nearby projects could mean for your home, Mitchel Bohi and The Forum Group are glad to help. Request a Complimentary Market Consultation.