Municipal sewage treatment plants, contaminated industrial sites and more along the coast of Maine will be exposed to regular tidal flooding within decades, according to a new report.
The Union of Concerned Scientists said on Tuesday that even in a moderate sea level rise scenario, critical infrastructure in coastal communities will flood twice a year on average by 2050.
Those “sunny day” floods will take place even without storms or heavy rainfall, a consequence of accelerating climate change driven by burning fossil fuels, according to the group.
“We are seeing this flooding increase around our coastline,” said Union of Concerned Scientists’ Director of Strategic Climate Analytics Erika Spanger.
“It really is just a several year timeframe within which tidal flooding can go from nearly unheard of to a regular occurrence,” she added.
The group’s report detailed crucial assets on the U.S. coasts that would be subjected to flooding across a number of scenarios. Seventeen sites in Maine were identified as being at risk in a little more than two decades.
Those included wastewater treatment plants in Ogunquit, Saco and Nobleboro, a hydro dam in Brunswick, affordable housing complex in Stonington and the Machias town office.
Contaminated industrial sites in Brunswick, Bath, Beals and Damariscotta are also threatened by flooding, which could expose people to toxic or hazardous pollutants.
“Assets that were safe when constructed are now at risk of being regularly inundated with seawater,” according to the report.
The report, released Tuesday, based its medium projections on a sea level rise of about 3.2 feet by 2100. In a lower scenario, about 1.6 feet of gain, would pose fewer flooding issues. A more severe scenario, of 6.5 feet, would mean more disruption, the group said.
Much of the U.S. coast is heavily developed, but vulnerable to increased flooding, according to its analysis. And time is running out to prevent the worst impacts of climate change that is warming the oceans and pushing sea levels higher, Spanger said.
Looking forward, a lot of the expected sea level rise through 2050 is locked in, since there have been insufficient efforts to date to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report. But there is still time to curb carbon dioxide and other gasses warming the planet to forestall the worst future impacts, Spanger said.
“Certainly we need to be cutting emissions so that late this century the flooding we face, the disruption in our communities that we face, is a kind that we can adapt to, a kind that we can live with and we can afford and not the untenable pathway we could be setting ourselves on,” she said.
And there is much more to be done to prepare for expected sea level rise, Spanger added. The report recommends that public and private decision makers use science-based approaches to mitigate the potential effects on critical infrastructure. It also encourages policies that reduce historical inequities and make sure disadvantaged communities get the resources and support they need.
“We all want to live in a resilient community, and to do that we have to be turning away from our business as usual approach,” Spanger said.
“We are going to need to be investing in protection of critical infrastructure but also thinking about relocating these things when protection is not a viable option,” she added.
