News Article by Cariad Hayes Thronson | KneeDeep Times
To a traveler arriving in the Bay Area by air, the vulnerability of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to rising seas is alarmingly apparent. Gazing out of the window as the plane touches down on a runway that juts into San Francisco Bay, the traveler can see the waves lapping just a few feet below.
“When you look at future sea level rise scenarios, the entire airport property, runways and facilities, could be inundated,” says SFO’s Doug Yakel. The existing protection system, which consists of vinyl sheet pile walls, concrete seawalls, and concrete-capped earthen berms, “was designed to protect against wave action during stormy weather. It really wasn’t designed to protect against an aggregate increase in the level of our seas.” Yakel notes there are also entire sections of the airport waterfront with no protection at all, including the water treatment facility and the US Coast Guard station.
But a plan to fortify the airport, which encompasses eight miles of Bay shoreline between South San Francisco and Millbrae, is gaining momentum. In October, the San Francisco Planning Department released a Draft Environmental Impact Report for SFO’s Shoreline Protection Program, which will protect the airport against an extreme 100-year tide and 42 inches of sea-level rise. More than that, the plan is shaping up to become a critical link in a chain of resilience projects strung along the county’s bayshore.
