A wreath memorializing Long Beach’s long, lost waves adorns the beach during last year’s inaugural Paddle Out in Memory of the Waves. Photo by Daniel deBoom.

8:01am | This week brought some bad news for residents and activists who wish to bring waves back to Long Beach.

Tuesday’s release of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ work plan for the remainder of the federal fiscal revealed that a study on the feasibility of reconfiguring the Long Beach Breakwater is not being funded in 2011, the Press-Telegram reported.

The Army Corps of Engineers and the city had struck a deal in December to share the cost of the roughly $8.3 million feasibility study over four years, but the study had since been placed on the back burner because the corps was sans a budget until last month.

A spokesman from the corps’ Los Angeles office told the PT that the corps was unable to secure funding for the study during fiscal year 2011. He added that there is currently no funding for the study in the proposed 2012 budget, though the corps plans to continue pursuing such funding.

The revelation that the study will continue to be delayed at least through the end of this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, comes in the midst of the city’s observance of Breakwater Awareness Month.

Spearheaded by Councilman Patrick O’Donnell, the city last week hosted a social forum at a surf shop on Fourth Street and handed out awards to breakwater reconfiguration advocates. Tomorrow, the second annual Paddle Out in Memory of the Waves is set for 10 a.m., for which participants will gather on the beach near Ocean Boulevard and Granada Avenue at 10 a.m. Finally, next week the city will host a town-hall style forum at Ecco’s Pizza, where the City Manager’s Office will update attendees on the status of reconfiguration efforts.

O’Donnell seemed unfazed regarding news of the setback, telling the PT that reconfiguration advocates have “always been prepared for a long fight.”

The 2.5-mile seawall runs from the Queen’s Way Gate to the Alamitos Channel. It was built in the 1940s and was completed in 1949.

According to a fact sheet on the breakwater found on the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation’s website, breakwater reconfiguration is sought because the man-made barrier traps urban runoff and stormwater from the Los Angeles River inside the harbor, which has caused the Long Beach coastline to deteriorate. Normally, the ocean’s current and waves would naturally cleanse the coastal waters and prevent water contaminated with chemicals from stagnating.