Resilience along the West Coast

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Coastal States Organization held a briefing on science and policy initiatives that are helping protect West Coast ecosystems and communities from erosion, sea level rise, and other coastal hazards. The briefing showcased nature-based solutions, which can protect human lives and property while creating habitat for wildlife and supporting various coastal industries. These techniques can also be paired with traditional “gray” infrastructure to meet a greater variety of planning needs.

The panelists described the collaborative process between federal, state, local, and Tribal stakeholders in collecting, sharing, and acting on scientific data to inform policy decisions around adaptation and help communities define and achieve their resilience goals. These projects can serve as a model for other regions experiencing similar issues

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Bradley Watson, Executive Director, Coastal States Organization (CSO)

• Each state’s coastline is different. One common theme across all coastlines is the need to address resilience.

 

Daniel Bresette, Executive Director, EESI

• West Coast state and local governments have some of the most ambitious plans to improve resilience.
• Adaptation is best done with local input and community priorities in mind, so those immediately affected by climate change, including those who are not able to bear the full financial burden of adaptation, are included and never left behind.

 

Patrick Barnard, Research Geologist, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, United States Geological Survey

• Temperature change is one of the most obvious indicators of climate change. Temperature has changed very rapidly over the last few decades.
• Sea level rise is primarily caused by the expansion of water as it is heated, and by land-based ice melting. There are about 250 feet of sea level rise stored in our ice sheets and mountain glaciers.
• Over the next century, we can expect about 3 feet of sea level rise. Already, we are seeing sunny-day flooding events on the West Coast.
• Flood events are becoming more common. Current infrastructure may not be able to withstand these impacts.
• We are on track to have about a billion people living in coastal zones throughout the world in the next several decades.
• In the San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, there are about 13 million people living at sea level.
• On the West Coast as a whole, there are 30 million people living in coastal counties. About one million of those people will be subject to daily flooding in the coming decades.
• About 2-6 percent of GDP is at risk from flooding in California.
• The USGS Our Coast, Our Future tool allows users to see how sea levels will rise.
• Energy infrastructure, like the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and oil refineries in the San Francisco Bay, are at risk as sea levels rise. Dozens of sewage treatment plants and three major international airports along the West Coast are built at sea level. Two of the three largest ports in the country are on the West Coast and at risk from sea level rise.
• Facebook, Google, and Oracle are built at sea level, on San Francisco Bay wetlands that were filled in.
• We are losing our beaches because they have nowhere to migrate. They are pinned between our infrastructure and a rising sea. We could lose about half of our beaches to coastal squeeze.
• As the ocean water goes up, so does the groundwater. Rising groundwater can flood streets. USGS is working to map these coastal hazards.

 

Charles Lester, Director, Ocean & Coastal Policy Center, Marine Science Institute, UC Santa Barbara

• Coastal squeeze is causing many of our beaches to disappear.
• In California, there are required hazard setbacks so development is further from the beach. But a lot of existing development remains in the hazard zone.
• There are three core choices when it comes to advancing seas: protect, accommodate, or retreat.
• Goleta Beach in Goleta, California will disappear with six feet of sea level rise.
• As the mean high tide moves inland, the public trust lands also move inland. What are we going to do when private developments encroach on public trust lands?
• Managed retreat is receiving a lot of pushback at the local level. There is a high cost of managed retreat, especially in California, which has many multi-million dollar beach side homes. But, planned retreat is becoming more common.
• Beach replenishment has become the preferred option for saving West Coast beaches.
• We have started to realize that we need to invest in solutions. Prop 68 in California allocated over $400 million to adaptation to climate change issues.
• There are over 30 properties in Isla Vista, California, which are being cut back to accommodate coastal erosion.
• Resilience is finding the balance between cost-effective risk reduction, environmental protection, and social equity.

 

Jessica Fain, Director of Planning, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC)

• In 2011, BCDC adopted climate change policies as part of the San Francisco Bay Plan. These policies require that projects be resilient to mid-century climate impacts and adaptable to end-of-century impacts.
• Measure AA was approved by Bay Area voters and created a $12 parcel tax to fund nature restoration projects.
• BCDC has recently partnered with several agencies to create the Bay Restoration Regulatory Integration Team (BRRIT) to permit restoration projects.
• Recent amendments to the San Francisco Bay Plan include:
  • Fill for habitat restoration: With sea level rise, ecosystems could experience habitat loss and may require more fill. The amendment will recognize the positive effects of fill and allow for more fill for habitats in the Bay.
  • Environmental justice and social equity: Shoreline development may place burdens on certain residents and climate change will affect areas differently. The amendment recognizes the Commission’s role in environmental injustices and requires meaningful community involvement.
• BCDC’s Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) program is a useful tool to empower communities to be more resilient to climate change. The ART Bay Area report will be released in 2020 to look at climate impacts in the Bay Area as a whole. The report will look at four systems: transportation, vulnerable communities, potential future growth, and conservation areas. ART Bay Area will show how each of these systems will be affected by sea level rise.
• It is important to remember that sea level rise is impacting people now. If we wait to fix problems until they reach the tipping point, it will be too late. We have the chance to be proactive about sea level rise, not reactive.
• We need to ensure that local governments have the tools and capacities they need to adapt to climate change.
• Resilience requires coordination across the full range of program areas, including transportation, education, housing, and natural resources.

 

Aimee Kinney, Coastal Law and Policy Research Scientist, Puget Sound Institute

• Shore Friendly is a voluntary program that uses incentives to encourage homeowners to remove damaging shoreline armor and use nature-based alternatives. It is run by the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources, with funding from the federal government.
• In Puget Sound, beach spawning forage fish are a key element of the food web. As beaches are damaged with hard armor, these fish are not able to spawn.
• The primary alternative shore protection technique used in Puget Sound is soft shore stabilization. These projects use beach nourishment, logs, and plants to slow erosion.
• The Marine Shoreline Design Guidelines can be used to help determine where removal of hard armor is appropriate and where soft shore alternatives are feasible.
• Much of the shoreline armor on Puget Sound is not needed to protect infrastructure. A lot of the existing hard armor was built in the 1950s and 60s and needs to be removed. We have an opportunity to restore beach habitat by removing the armor.
• The Shore Friendly program includes education for homeowners and influencers. The program also provides technical, design, permitting, and financial assistance to homeowners.
• Demand for assistance has been very high and additional financial incentives are needed to get more armor removal projects completed.
• The Puget Sound Institute is looking to expand Shore Friendly by helping to create a Revolving Loan Fund that will offer low-cost loans to finance shore-friendly projects. The Institute would also like to move homes away from the shore using the Loan Fund, for long-term resilience to sea level rise.
• The Coastal Communities Adaptation Act (H.R. 1317) and the Living Shorelines Act (H.R. 3115) would provide funding for programs like Shore Friendly. We must ensure local programs focused on small residential projects would be funded by these bills.

 

Question & Answer Session

 

What is the definition of resilience?

• Kinney: Resilience is bouncing back after a stressor to the ecosystem.
• Fain: Resilience is planning systems so we are going towards a goal. Resilience is linked to health and the economy.
• Barnard: Resilience is using data-driven projections to plan for the potential impacts of climate change.

 

How do rising groundwater levels affect soil liquefaction in the event of an earthquake?

• Barnard: Liquefaction maps will need to be updated as the water table changes. Rising groundwater levels will enhance the hazard of liquefaction during earthquakes.

 

What are conservation districts?

• Kinney: Conservation districts are sometimes called soil conservation districts. These districts have delivered the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to farmers. It is a great model for using public dollars to support conservation stewardship on private land.

 

What is the impact of climate change on the snowpack?

• Fain: In the San Francisco Bay, we are connected to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. We have been looking at how the runoff from the Sierra Nevada mountains will impact the Bay Area.

 

Are there any parallels between the work being done in New York and in California?

• Fain: Restoration projects in New York City are very small—usually an acre or less. In the Bay Area, restoration projects are very large. The governance structure is also different. California has a lot of layers of government.
• Lester: California has a $40 billion coastal economy. We have a huge coastal economy because we decided to protect it. Regulation does not kill the economy.

 

Are there other places around the country that you look to for inspiration with respect to coastal resilience projects?

• Kinney: We have looked to Maryland and Virginia for financing coastal projects.
• I have looked at the Blue Acres program in New Jersey, which is a buyout acquisition program.
• I am interested in what Louisiana is doing on a large scale.
• Hurricane Sandy reinvigorated the conversation around coastal hazards. The Gulf Coast has also been on the front lines of sea level rise. We also have been working with the Dutch to see how they have been living with rising seas.

 

The West Coast represents a wide variety of geographical features, development trends, and extreme weather hazards. This briefing provided an overview of that diversity and provided specific examples of projects that protect both homes and industry, as well as showcased the legislation, regulations, and programs that help (or hinder) those projects’ success.