U.S. REP. KEVIN MULLIN, D-San Mateo, spoke this week in South San Francisco to promote a new bipartisan bill that would direct the U.S. Geological Survey to address a hidden threat happening just below our feet.
The Groundwater Rise and Infrastructure Preparedness Act, introduced in Congress on June 25 by Mullin and Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-New York, would direct the USGS to map and forecast future groundwater rise through 2100.
Groundwater is rainwater that drips through the topsoil and collects in the cavities in underground rock formations. It’s held in place by layers of land and the weight of the ocean pressing against shorelines and levees. As the ocean rises, saltwater leaches into the soil and mixes with the groundwater. Any contaminants found in the upper layers of soil will rise to the surface with sea levels.
“This is a current and pressing issue,” said Mullin at a press event on Oyster Point Marina, which is built on a solid waste landfill.
“The USGS would also evaluate the impact of groundwater rise on our nation’s infrastructure, such as roads, utilities and sewers,” he said. “The USGS would also assess the risk to public health, including the spread of underground pollutants or contamination of drinking water. And it would develop mitigation strategies to recommend to communities so our local agencies can better address the potential impacts.
Mullin and Garbarino are essentially asking for resources so the government can do its job following massive cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration. According to a February list released by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, at least 25 USGS offices, primarily water science centers, have had their leases terminated or are scheduled for closure by the end of 2025.
Trump’s budget bill, which was signed into law earlier this month, includes a 39% reduction to the USGS budget compared to the previous year.
Federal support for vulnerable frontline communities is also weakening. In April, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the end of Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, a grant initiative designed to help states, local communities and tribes fund hazard mitigation projects that reduce risks from natural disasters, including support for infrastructure costs. Those grants covered 75% of project costs and 90% of costs for small or disadvantaged communities.
Flooding doesn’t care whether you live in a red or a blue state.
U.S. REP. KEVIN MULLIN, D-San Mateo
Meanwhile the sea rises, and local governments need help finding and mitigating the dangers of contamination with groundwater rise.
“Flooding doesn’t care whether you live in a red or a blue state,” said Mullin.
Mullin’s bill is endorsed by multiple nonprofits and agencies, including the American Coastal Coalition, American Planning Association, Association of State Floodplain Managers, National States Geographic Information Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, OneShoreline, Restore America’s Estuaries, San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, Save the Bay, and the Surfrider Foundation.
The effort to mitigate the impacts of sea level rise in the Bay Area has led to the formation of regional and multi-jurisdictional entities, like the San Mateo County government agency OneShoreline, a collaborative of cities that focus on broad climate resilience solutions. At the press event, OneShoreline chief executive officer Len Materman held up a map showing the flooding and groundwater risks in South San Francisco.
Materman explained that multi-jurisdictional adaptation projects are technically complex and require land rights, vast financial resources and have demanding permits.
“We need the best tools at our disposal regarding groundwater,” he said. “We do not yet have this. Think of it like you’re planning a project to protect the foundation of your home. Would you want to use countywide data on soil and aquifers, or data that is specific to your street? We need more detailed information to design these remedies for groundwater rise that are specific to our location.”
In December, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission released a report called the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan, which includes guidelines to fulfill state requirements for each local government along the regional shoreline to submit a sea level adaptation plan to the BCDC by 2034.
State funding will work similarly to state housing initiatives, with funds available for planning and projects. BCDC spokesperson Rylan Gervase estimated the costs of rising sea level adaptation projects could be about $110 billion for the entire Bay Area by 2050. He said the cost of inaction would rise to about $230 billion in damage.
In 2019, the San Francisco Estuary Institute and San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association published detailed area-specific guidelines for engineered adaptation solutions called the San Francisco Bay Shoreline Adaptation Atlas. The report disregards political boundaries, which are irrelevant to the impacts of sea level rise, and goes to work on the landforms and watersheds where impacts really happen.
Mullin’s bill includes $5 million to the USGS to conduct a groundwater rise impact study on infrastructure and public health in consultation with relevant federal agencies and report its findings to Congress within three years.
To find local facilities that could be hazardous and are at risk of future flooding due to sea level rise, the climate research organization Climate Central has produced an interactive map.
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