Category: News Article

News Article by Ezra David Romero | KQED

The county in California most at risk from sea level rise is San Mateo, with nearly 100,000 people — half residents of color — living just three feet above the high-tide line. If climate models prove correct, rising seas threaten billions of dollars of homes and businesses, and hundreds of contaminated sites could harm residents if flooded.

“We’re at ground zero for the state, so it’s our responsibility to act,” said Len Materman, who leads the San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District, or OneShoreline.

Sea levels along the California coastline, including the San Francisco Bay, could rise 7 to 21 inches by the year 2050, depending on how much and how quickly the world’s countries manage to cut carbon dioxide emissions. By the end of the century, with little drop in emissions, seas could rise by as much as 6.5 feet, according to a national study released last week. That’s from the climate emergency alone; storms, king tides and sinking land add inches to those estimates…

What will California’s coast look like in 100 years?

News Article by Elizabeth Hlavinka | Alta

Eighteen thousand years ago, give or take, the continental shelf 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco was exposed as a wide, flat coastal plain with an extensive system of dunes and river valleys connecting the Farallon Islands to the continental United States, which didn’t go by that name. Farther north, salt waters from the Pacific Ocean stretched all the way inland to present-day Sacramento.

Rising sea levels have continued to erode the shoreline ever since, as human beings established a society they would eventually call California. Some of our biggest cities were built in this 10 miles of dynamic coastline.

“We often think of the California coast as this high-relief terrain with active tectonics, which it is, but we’ve put millions of people in the lowest parts of the entire state, like the San Diego Bay, the San Francisco Bay, and the Los Angeles Basin,” says Patrick Barnard, the research director of the climate impacts and coastal processes team at USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz…

News Article by Joe Eaton | KneeDeep Times

Mention zoning to most people and they’ll likely think of height limits, density restrictions, or, if their memories are long enough, the notorious practice of racial redlining. But local zoning ordinances and other land-use regulations are taking on a new role in communities trying to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate change.

“One of the most effective forms of hazard mitigation is through tools that we already have in place: land use and building codes,” FEMA Region 9 Mitigation Division director Kathryn Lipiecki said at last year’s California Adaptation Forum. “Where and how you build can be among the most important decisions that are made in any community.” Zoning changes addressing sea-level rise are happening from Hawaii to Florida. 

In the Bay Area, the city of Burlingame, with help from a new countywide agency in San Mateo County and a climate think tank in Washington, DC, just amended its zoning code to require higher ground-floor elevations and space for protective infrastructure in new development within an area vulnerable to sea-level rise. Other cities in the county and the region may follow Burlingame’s lead…

Burlingame’s Bayfront is located between Highway 101 and the San Francisco Bay in Burlingame. The area is low lying and exposed to flood risks and sea level rise hazards. Existing riprap floodwalls provide only minimal protection. The area is vulnerable to storm surges and flooding; in future decades there will likely be inundation.

The City of Burlingame completed a comprehensive update of the zoning ordinance in 2021. The new zoning code provides regulations for the Bayfront, including guidelines for new development to be resilient to sea level rise. Chapter 25.12 in Article 2 includes the Bayfront Commercial District, and Section 25.12.050 provides public access, flood and sea level rise performance guidelines.

News Article by Sergio Quintana / NBC Bay Area

Burlingame may soon be the first city in the Bay Area to incorporate sea level rise into its zoning and building codes.

Along Burlingame’s bayfront are a new set of towers juts out into the bay.

If the city council adopts new zoning and building codes, new developments would have to incorporate certain strategies to help protect them and the rest of the bayfront from rising sea levels…

San Mateo County’s OneShoreline Receives $8M

Press Release: Office of Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin

Sacramento – Governor Newsom has signed bills totaling a historic $15 Billon to address a wide range of climate change issues, making it the largest investment of its kind in California’s history. This funding will help make California more resilient by investing in a wide range of prevention and adaptation activities throughout the state.

“Governor Newsom and the legislature have demonstrated that we take the impacts of climate change seriously,” said Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin. “This historic funding will help California protect against future climate disasters by taking steps to make our state more resilient. I have advocated for this funding through my own legislation and as a member of the budget committee and I am very happy that many of the goals and objectives contained in my bills are addressed in this overall climate package. I am especially pleased that OneShoreline received $8M to align and connect recent climate risk studies by Burlingame, Millbrae and the San Francisco International Airport, in order to develop a regional solution.”

San Mateo County has several specific flood prone areas and began looking ahead to how sea level rise might impact an already existing problem. Local agencies began to meet and address the numerous challenges ahead. Ultimately, after several meetings and proposals were discussed, it was recommended that state legislation expand the mission, geographic reach and governing board of the San Mateo County Flood Control District. AB 825 (Mullin) was signed into law and on January 1, 2020, the San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Resiliency District (OneShoreline) was formed. 

“San Mateo County is the most threatened of any county in California by sea level rise,” said Supervisor Dave Pine who serves as the Chair of OneShoreline. “Through OneShoreline, our cities and the county have come together to meet the challenge of sea level rise but we cannot do this alone. With this investment by the state, championed by Assemblymember Mullin, we will be able to advance projects and the planning necessary to help protect our communities.”

“Two years ago, Assemblymember Mullin’s initiative created OneShoreline, the first independent government agency in California with a focus on sea level rise resilience,” said OneShoreline CEO Len Materman. “Today, Mr. Mullin’s leadership has secured a critical State investment in our agency and one of our signature projects. By aligning long-term sea level rise protection across two cities and connecting it to a similar effort by SFO, we will demonstrate that by working together we can meet this transformative challenge.”  

News Article by Ezra David Romero / KQED

As the South Bay grapples with the impacts of climate change, people there are creating solutions by relying on arguably the most fundamental element of conversation: listening.

This process began in East Palo Alto, where community groups and scientists are helping residents understand how warming temperatures are raising water levels in the bay — already half the city lies in a federal flood zone. And the idea is now spreading to nearby communities like North Fair Oaks, a small unincorporated area of mostly neighborhoods. Soon, it will expand into a regional science project where hundreds of residents will document how climate change is altering their lives over the next five years. 

The listening project is led by Violet Wulf-Saena, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Climate Resilient Communities. Her group advocates for climate change solutions that integrate the communities most affected by warming temperatures in the Bay Area…

News Article by Liza Gross / KQED

Farmers toil at the mercy of nature’s whims, which can prove particularly vexing in California.

Even before climate change, bouncing between drought and deluge was routine in the Central Valley, the state’s richest farming region. Humans have amplified these natural cycles by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, studies show, creating a future filled with what scientists recently dubbed “whiplash events.”

California got a taste of whiplash four years ago, when one of its wettest winters immediately followed one of its deepest, longest droughts. Heavy runoff from rivers in the Sierra Nevada damaged the main spillway of the Oroville Dam, the largest in the nation, forcing more than 180,000 people to evacuate.

Such dramatic swings will create even more headaches for California farmers and water managers, who have more than their share in a good year.

Now, as California farmers grapple with reduced federal water allocations amid an intensifying drought, a recent study challenges policymakers to think about floods…

News Article by Sierra Lopez / The Daily Journal

Faced with increasingly drier seasons and hotter weather, San Mateo County leaders encouraged residents to play a productive role in mitigating fire risks and preparing for potential catastrophes.

“The only way for us to address this huge challenge is if we’re all in this together,” Len Materman, CEO of OneShoreline, San Mateo County’s Flood and Sea Level Rise District said during a panel hosted Thursday, June 3, by the organization in partnership with the League of Women Voters.

Over the past five years, California has grown hotter and drier which has compounded decades of human impacts on the environment including fire suppression, population growth and aging infrastructure, Jonathan Cox, deputy chief of Cal Fire’s San Mateo County division, said…

News Article by Astrid Casimire / Bay City News Foundation

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA — San Mateo County leaders and officials will discuss wildfire risk in the county during a virtual forum on Thursday.

The forum takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. People can register here. Those who register will receive a Zoom link to access the event, which is capped at 100 attendees. It will also be live-streamed on YouTube.

Speakers include county Supervisor Don Horsley, Portola Valley Mayor Maryann Derwin, Deputy Chief of Cal Fire’s San Mateo County Division Jonathan Cox, San Mateo County Parks Director Nicholas Calderon and FIRE SAFE San Mateo County President Denise Enea.

They will discuss what is being done to reduce wildfire risk in the county. Speakers, community leaders and other experts will then answer questions from event attendees…