NORTH COUNTY -- A new report seems to confirm what local surfers, sunbathers and joggers have seen for a while: Local beaches are looking anemic again.

In late June, the Shoreline Committee of the San Diego Association of Governments received an annual report from its 2007 shoreline monitoring program, which measures the amount of sand on beaches throughout the county.

The report said that, taken together, the county's beaches have less sand today than they did before 2001, when the regional planning agency dumped 2.1 million cubic yards of the stuff on 12 beaches from Imperial Beach to Oceanside.

"We've known we were having a retreat over the years, and this year it did drop below the level that we started with before the nourishment project in 2001," said Rob Rundle, senior planner for the regional agency.

The report says that heavy waves in 2007 may have pulled sand off local beaches more quickly than occurred in 2006, when the motion of the ocean was milder.

Since 2000, the monitoring program has been regularly recording sand levels at 12 coastal locations, providing a record of how sand volume has changed over time.

A series of charts for each of the 12 sites shows that, while the region as a whole has less sand than it did before 2001, some beaches are faring better than others.

The report says that North Carlsbad State Beach and beaches in south Oceanside have more sand than they did in 2000.

That could be the result of other projects that affect the shoreline, officials said.

Annual harbor dredging in Oceanside puts thousands of cubic yards of sand on the beach south of the Oceanside Municipal Pier. In Carlsbad, occasional dredging of Agua Hedionda Lagoon also puts sand on the beach. The dredging is intended to keep the lagoon deep enough to allow the cooling system of the Encina power plant to continue operating.

Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, South Carlsbad State Beach and the stretch of beach near the mouth of Batiquitos Lagoon -- which runs between Encinitas and Carlsbad --- showed the biggest losses in sand, the report states.

Steve Aceti, executive director of the Encinitas-based California Coastal Coalition, said his morning runs on the beach in Encinitas tell him all he needs to know about the area's sand situation.

"Now there's cobble (stone) in the summer where there shouldn't be cobble," Aceti said. "Over the years I got spoiled. I got used to running from Moonlight Beach or Stone Steps down to Swami's (beach) without any problems. Now, even if it's not high tide, you can get cut off. It's terrible conditions out there."

Aceti has long lobbied for more sand on local beaches, and is a proponent of Encinitas's "sand tax" initiative, which has been placed on the November ballot after failing to pass in the June election.

He said funding is available from the California Department of Boating and Waterways to pay for another sand replenishment effort in 2010.

That replenishment is expected to cost $28 million, but would probably include several offshore artificial reefs designed to keep sand from being washed away on some of the most sand-starved beaches in Solana Beach, Encinitas and parts of Carlsbad.

"The thing is, we've got to do this every three to five years in order to keep up a good level of sand," Aceti said.

Carlsbad City Councilwoman Ann Kulchin, who chairs the regional Shoreline Preservation Committee, said Friday that she believes a county-wide initiative to raise sales taxes, by one-half of a percentage point, could help provide enough cash to regularly replenish local beaches.

"We've taken our beaches for granted for so long, it's like having a house and not doing anything to it for five or 10 years," Kulchin said. "All of a sudden, you have real issues that need to be addressed."

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.