Globally,
sea level has risen 13 feet in the last seven thousand years and local
Delaware tide gauges suggest the sea level rose about a foot in the
twentieth century. Planning for sea level rise is a good idea. There
should have been a rapid response plan to fill the 50 foot breach at
Fowler Beach when it first occurred. Rapid response would have saved a
valuable fresh water marsh and significant damage to surrounding farm
land and roads. Repair would have also limited the risk of further
damage and even death in the Broadkill Beach, Prime Hook Beach, and
Slaughter Beach communities. Now the breach is 4000 feet wide and the
repair will cost dramatically more.
Coming
up with a long term plan to deal with sea level rise will require a
political process of give and take and the creation of a consensus by
various factions. Unfortunately, the emphasis of the recent News
Journal series and reports by the Delaware Department of Natural
Resources and Environmental Control un-necessarily linking the sea level
rise problem to worst case climate change scenarios has made the
problem solving process more difficult. A lot of people, particularly
down state where sea level problems are more acute, reject these worst
case scenarios as un-proven. There is a risk sea level rise planning
will succumb to the climate change debate.
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