By the year 2100, more than 5,500 currently existing hazardous sites across the U.S. are projected to be at risk of coastal flooding. That’s according to new peer-reviewed research published in the Nature journal.
This research was led by University of California scientists, according to a press release from the institution. In their examination of the 23 states with ocean coastlines, as well as Puerto Rico, the team also found that nearly 3,800 hazardous facilities are projected to face flood risk within the next 45 years. They said much of the risk is “locked in” due to past emissions.
Facility types covered in the study include: nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, animal operations, sewage treatment facilities, hazardous waste disposal, industrial facilities, landfills and incinerators, clean-up sites, refineries, fossil fuel ports and terminals, oil and gas wells and formerly used defense sites.
Extreme weather events have already caused dangerous incidents at such sites. Flooding from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 resulted in 200 contaminant releases reported along the Texas Gulf Coast, for example.
“Over 10 million pounds of regulated air pollutants were released from refineries, petrochemical, and other industrial facilities, and the catastrophic explosion of a chemical plant due to the loss of power for refrigeration necessitated the evacuation of 40,000 people,” the study authors said.
In 2011, a tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan, causing a nuclear accident, per the World Nuclear Association. Though there were no deaths or cases of radiation sickness due to the incident, more than 100,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes as a preventative measure.
“Flooding from sea level rise is dangerous on its own, but when facilities with hazardous materials are in the path of those floodwaters, the danger multiplies,” said Lara Cushing, holder of the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity, and an associate professor of environmental health sciences with UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.
According to the study, most of the risk in the U.S. (80%) through 2100 is focused in seven states – Florida, New Jersey, California, Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts and Texas. Furthermore, certain communities are more likely to live near high risk areas. More renters, households living in poverty, residents who identify as Hispanic, linguistically isolated households, households without vehicles, seniors and non-voters live near risk areas.
“This analysis makes it clear that these projected dangers are falling disproportionately on poorer communities and communities that have faced discrimination and therefore often lack the resources to prepare for, retreat, or recover from exposure to toxic floodwaters,” Cushing said.
Her team said that “heat-trapping pollution” growing unchecked is the main reason why we can expect rising sea levels that could flood a range of sites. Nearly all of the coastal U.S. is expected to experience elevated water levels on a daily basis in 2100 that today occurs only twice per century. During the coming decade, the researchers should also prepare to see a “rapid increase in the frequency of high tide flooding” in multiple cities.
“Coastal communities, including underserved groups that are working to fortify their resilience to climate change need access to critical data and resources to plan for the future,” said Rachel Morello-Frosch, an environmental health scientist and professor in the department of environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and a study co-author.
Last year Audacy reported on other research that indicated climate change-related ice mass melting was changing the composition of the planet and making days longer.
“A shift in mass is taking place, and this is affecting the Earth’s rotation,” explained Benedikt Soja, Professor of Space Geodesy at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich.
While President Donald Trump has declared that climate change is a “hoax” and his administration has taken a different approach to environmental issues compared to the previous administration, the researchers said that it is still important to focus on. In fact, UCLA said they found that even “moderate cuts to climate pollution could reduce the number of sites at risk by more than 300 by the end of the century.”
“There are potential solutions, if policymakers are ready to move forward,” Morello-Frosch explained. “And there is a clear need for disaster planning and land-use decision-making, as well as mitigation strategies to address the inequitable hazards and potential health threats posed by sea level rise.”