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Editorial: California’s rising sea level demands aggressive response from state

In this August file photo, an Amtrak train makes its way along the Del Mar bluffs that have been plagued by cliff collapses in recent years due to erosion linked to rising ocean levels.
(U-T)

Disaster could be 10 times worse than most devastating earthquake

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The state Assembly’s Select Committee on Sea Level Rise and the California Economy met for the first time in five years this week to discuss the ominous threats facing coastal areas as global warming melts the ice caps. Given that the lead author of a 2019 U.S. Geological Survey study warned that property damage from the rising ocean could be “10 times the scale of the worst wildfires and earthquakes that we’ve experienced in modern California history,” such meetings should be more regular.

The meeting was held at the request of Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner Horvath, D-Encinitas, in her hometown, not far from where the crumbling bluffs in Del Mar threaten the only train track linking San Diego and the rest of California. Local officials expressed alarm at the potential damage posed by the rise of sea level of some 9 feet in the next 80 years and frustration at the lack of a well-funded state attempt to begin planning on how to respond.

That needs to change. The budget that the Newsom administration introduces in January must include funding for a task force that examines whether it is realistic to think sea walls can allow coastal communities to function and survive or if existing homes, businesses and infrastructure must be relocated further inland — starting with the 3.55 million pounds of radioactive waste now being stored at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant.

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The sooner California leaders start preparing for this devastating slow-motion disaster, the better.

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