Sea level rise adaption on California Coastal Commission agenda

EUREKA—The California Coastal Commission meets Aug. 7-9 in Eureka, coinciding with publication of this issue. Among the issues to be discussed during the three-day meeting are sea level rise adaptation and the installation of a storm drain near Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor. Reporting on both of these agenda items will be featured in our Aug. 23 issue. The sea level rise adaption item is the latest in a series of presentations made by Coastal Commission staff. Coastal Commission Executive Director Jack Ainsworth called sea level rise a “slow-moving disaster” during the quasi-judicial agency’s November 2018 meetings. Ainsworth told commissioners and meeting attendees back then the point of these sea level rise adaptation presentations is to provide local governments with tools to prepare for the day portions of their cities are underwater, as predicted. “It [sea level rise] is going to happen. It would be irresponsible of us to not plan for this,” Ainsworth said at the November 2018 Coastal Commission meetings. Commissioners also adopted updates to the state’s sea level rise policy at those same meetings in November 2018. The Ocean Protection Council presented new scientific findings on sea level rise. Much of what was presented about nine months ago focused on the effects...