Loosening the challenges of climate silence has a priority for legislators in this legislative session.
Maine, USA – When the winter storms of last year devastated the coast, Sam Belknaps Family Wharf on Round Pond Harbor in Bristol was saved through his concrete floor. The soil that the von Belknap family brought in years ago when they were enabled to a processing room for seafood, provided enough weight to hide the majority of the KAI.
As the state states for future storms, Belknap increases the concrete floor as an example of resilience technology at work.
More than a year after a series of December 2023 and January 2024, storms of an estimated 90 million US dollars to the municipalities to strengthen its willingness and resistance to future storms.
Jessica Reilly-Moman, director of the climate and community at Rockland Island Institute, said that the storms had triggered a discussion about what will come.
“It felt like a moment,” said Reilly-Moman. “It became clear that the effects of the coastal communities are new and different.”
In contrast to the typical Nor'easter storms that move through the Gulf of Maine in winter, the three storms that reached the coast directly more than a year ago, which is less common together, as from a report from 2024 by the Maine Climate Council.
In a warmer world, the climate scientist of the state of Maine, Sean Birkel, said we can expect storms to become more intense and bring more precipitation in developing large systems. We can also see that more storms take the Sou'easter route, although changes to the storm frequency are difficult to determine.
“Whether we see this more often in a certain year or given decade or not, there is a lot of uncertainty there,” said Birkel. The warmer ocean temperatures and the sea level rise along the coast of Maine, only further questions about future storms.
If you take this uncertainty into account, you will be postponed from recovery to resistance.
But Belknap, who works as director of the Center for Marine Economy at Iceland Institute, said that this shift can be a challenge, since even the long -term solutions that seem to be uncomplicated for companies, such as a heavy soil, are expensive.
“It is one of these chicken and egg situations in which the time takes the time to really rebuild towards resilience The Maine Monitor.
For homeowners, other solutions such as the construction of marine walls are difficult to do for resilience at the community level.
The relief of these challenges has a priority for legislators in the legislative meeting 2025. In January, Rep. Bob Foley (R-Wells) presented an emergency bill LD 228 so that property owners can increase the coastal walls by up to two feet.
The regulations currently prohibit the construction of new residential walls or additions to existing cars in the Küstensand -Dune -Ökosystem. The only exception is that the department for environmental protection for the sand dungey system, the habitat for wild animals and adjacent properties are considered less harmful.
Foleys Bill quotes the increase in sea level for the proposed change. Both Belknap and Reilly -Moman asked questions about the legislative template and said it was an example of a “hard infrastructure” approach to reduction in contrast to natural -based solutions. “Softer” approaches such as planting local plants are often difficult to stick to Maine's wind and waves.
However, the walls accelerate the erosion on their base and on their edges, which in the long run worsen and cause problems for neighbors.
“If an owner is able to make an investment and his neighbors are for some reason, the neighbors will have the effects of future storms
Last week, a cross -party bill, which was sponsored by the democratic and Republican leadership on behalf of Governor Janet Mills, was received widespread at a public hearing on February 28th.
The draft law LD 1 contains recommendations from the infrastructure – reorganization and resilience commission that the governor set up last spring. The law proposes three initiatives, including the creation of a home resilience program, the introduction of a state office for resilience and a “flood” program as well as the improvement of resources and communication with a reduction in danger.
Two of the initiatives of the draft law expressly mentioned that the federal do -do for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, two agencies, whose financing sources have been questioned, were questioned under ongoing changes to the federal expenses. Reilly-Moman said that there is a “climate of uncertainty” for those who rely on federal grants, as the Fema offers.
Within the public sector, Reilly-Moman said that this was an opportunity for the state to consider how the sources of financing can diversify that they include local philanthropy and companies.
“The coastal values we already have fits perfectly with this type of uncertainty,” said Reilly-Moman. “I think Maine is uniquely positioned to use this as an opportunity.”
This story was originally published by The Maine MonitorA non -profit and non -partisan news organization. Register for a free monitor newsletter to receive regular reporting via the monitor Here.
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