News

The hope is to ready them up to face future weather threats.

Legislation recently introduced in the House calls for the creation of a sea level-tracking database—deemed the National Coastal Data Information System—to inform people in frontline coastal communities how climate change is uniquely impacting their areas, and ultimately advance their preparedness for future natural disasters.

If passed, the National Sea Level Risk Analysis Act would mandate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to capture and centralize vast, countrywide coastal data on the flood risks so many are enduring.

The bill comes from Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., who noted in a statement Thursday how her home of New York City “has already suffered the consequences of rising sea levels and flooding.”

“If we don’t take this threat seriously and implement bold climate solutions, it will only get worse,” she said.

NYC is one of many cities on America’s edge that has been recently pummeled by severe weather events that leave behind expensive, heartbreaking damage in their tracks. Since 1950, sea levels have emerged 6.5 inches higher—and half of that, or three inches, happened in the last two decades. Such a rise means more flooding during high tides and big storms.

“With the National Coastal Data Information System, we can arm our coastal towns with data on rising sea levels,” Velázquez said.

READ MORE

By ecoRI News staff

Drinking water wells at homes along the Rhode Island coastline are being contaminated by an intrusion of salt water, and as sea levels rise and storm surge increases as a result of the changing climate, many more wells are likely to be at risk.

To address this situation, a team of University of Rhode Island researchers is conducting a series of geophysical tests to determine the extent of the problem.

“Salt water cannot be used for crop irrigation, it can’t be consumed by people, so this is a serious problem for people in communities that depend on freshwater groundwater,” said Soni Pradhanang, associate professor in the URI Department of Geosciences and the leader of the project. “We know there are many wells in close proximity to the coast that have saline water, and many others are vulnerable. Our goal is to document how far inland the salt water may travel and how long it stays saline.”

Salt water can find its way into well water in several ways, according to Pradhanang. It can flow into the well from above after running along the surface of the land, for instance, or it could be pushed into the aquifer from below. Sometimes it recedes on its own at the conclusion of a storm, while other times it remains a permanent problem.

Pradhanang and graduate student Jeeban Panthi are focusing their efforts along the edge of the salt ponds in Charlestown and South Kingstown, where the problem appears to be the most severe.

Since salt water is denser than fresh water, it typically settles below. So the scientists are using ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tests — equipment loaned from the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Agriculture — to map the depth of the saltwater/freshwater interface.

READ MORE