Law would force California cities to plan for sea level rise

By Julia Scott
8 June 2011 Bay Area cities and counties whose jurisdictions contain the San Francisco and Oakland airports and the ports of Oakland and Redwood City would be required to prepare action plans to deal with rising sea levels under a trailblazing bill passed by the state Assembly last week. The bill would require roughly 75 cities, counties, harbor districts, ports and sanitary districts that administer state-granted coastal public lands to have a plan in place by 2013 to contend with storm surges and flooding expected to result from rising sea levels by the end of the century. Besides airports and ports, it would apply to commercial harbors, wastewater treatment plants and protected tideland areas. The legislation introduced by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, a Santa Monica Democrat, would require a mandatory plan for not only how to cope with encroaching tides, but a fiscal analysis of the damage that could occur if the public agency in question does not act in time and the cost of those projected repairs. A Bay Area News Group analysis in 2010 showed only half of the Bay Area’s 12 proposed major bayfront developments have a strategy for adapting to rising sea levels, which experts warn could cause $56.5 billion in property damage in San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara counties by the end of the century if left unchecked. If it arrived today, a 100-year storm along the California coast would endanger about 480,000 people and $100 billion dollars of property, according to the Pacific Institute. “There were a number of local governments with these lands that were not responding. We need to prepare so that so we’re not investing millions of dollars in construction that turns out to be threatened by sea level rise,” said Curtis Fossum, executive officer of the State Lands Commission — the agency that would administer the Brownley bill. … The bill now heads to the Senate, where it may have a rougher ride. A similar Brownley bill died in a Senate committee last year over concerns about “cost pressures.” …

Law would force Bay Area cities to plan for sea level rise via The Oil Drum