Last spring, when the flooding events were the talk of the town, I wondered if the flooding problem Norwalk has in related to the problems that our coastal neighbors have. I looked at Darien, Westport and Fairfield and found evidence that they were getting the same types of flooding, same types of frequency that Norwalk was experiencing. So I posed the question, if the idea of storm water drainage is to drain out into the sound, what happens if the sound is rising?
Now, I think I got my answer. Today’s Courant features a story about the rising Sound in Guilford. Guilford has flatter land that meets the Long Island Sound, so they can observe the effects of a rising Sound more easily, it’s a direct cause and effect. Norwalk, and other towns along the coast that are densely populated and varied in topography have a more difficult time. So Guilford did what Norwalk didn’t, and hired a scientist to measure the rising Sound. From the Courant:
Whatever you believe about climate change, some things are irrefutable: The sea off Connecticut’s coast rose at least 8 inches over the past century, and it is rising about a tenth of an inch per year now. And Pollyanna Rock is not the only thing that is disappearing.
In this community of 21,000 on the Sound, the higher sea level already affects homes, marinas, roads, beaches and marshes. People have started to assess what might happen, and what they should do about it.
“I’m of two minds,” Waugh said, sitting in the backyard of her cottage, a couple of feet above the incoming tide. The family could build up the sea wall or try to find the money to raise the house up on stilts, she said. But she added: “Part of me feels it will be a very natural thing to happen if the sea swallows this house.”
Guilford is ahead of many communities in anticipating sea level rise: In 2004, the town brought together local officials, scientists and other experts in coastal resources, insurance and emergency planning for a daylong workshop on the impact of climate change.
The town is rewriting its 25-year-old coastal zone management plan — the document that guides decisions on land use along the shoreline and tidal rivers. But the effort raises tricky questions about public vs. private interests, and it is already clear that Guilford residents and officials will face difficult choices in the years ahead.
The U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — which won the Nobel Peace Prize this year along with former Vice President Al Gore — said in its latest report on Nov. 17 that sea level rise will wreak havoc during the next century. Higher seas will drown islands, erode coastlines and disrupt the lives and food supplies of hundreds of millions of people.
That poses huge risks for heavily populated areas like the low-lying deltas of Bangladesh and Egypt. In the United States, beachfront states from New Jersey south along the Atlantic Coast and the low-lying Gulf Coast are most at risk.
The threat is less severe along the rocky headlands, quiet beaches and sheltered coves of Connecticut’s shoreline. But more than 2 million people live near the water. An eroding coastline and higher storm surges could threaten $600 billion in property, roads, bridges, railways and other infrastructure.
The threat is not just a slow, long-term problem, however. Nature has unleashed violence on us before, and most agree it is going to happen again, only next time, it will be much worse.
There are many things that contribute to flooding in Norwalk, and focusing on just the Sound is not the only answer. But it’s part of the mix, and if Guilford is being impacted by a 1/10th of an inch rise in the Sound each year, then Norwalk and other neighboring towns should be investigating the same thing.
source: The Courant, High Sea, High Risk: Shoreline Towns Beginning To Prepare For The Inevitable, By DAVID FUNKHOUSER, December 16, 2007
