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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2018
Rising sea levels threatening historic lighthouses
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press
MAURICE
RIVER
TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Rising
seas and erosion are threat-
ening lighthouses around the
U.S. and the world. Volun-
teers and cash-strapped gov-
ernments are doing what they
can, but the level of concern,
like the water, is rising.
New Jersey’s East Point
Lighthouse has been lighting
up Delaware Bay for the bet-
ter part of two centuries. But
those same waters that the
lighthouse helped illuminate
might bring about its demise.
With even a moderate-term
fix likely to cost $3 million or
more, New Jersey officials are
considering what to do to save
the lighthouse. Nancy Patter-
son, president of the Maurice
River Historical Society, says
something needs to be done
now.
State and local govern-
ments routinely shore up the
perimeter of the lighthouse
property with 3,000-pound
sand bags and hastily bull-
dozed earthen walls. During
normal conditions, the bay is
about 40 yards from the light-
house; aerial photos from
1940 show at least four times
as much beach between the
lighthouse and the bay as there
is now.
And during storms, the surf
pounds against an earthen wall
just 10 yards from the light-
house’s front steps.
“This lighthouse is in
incredible danger; it’s getting
worse and worse and worse,”
Patterson said. “The water is
right there, often within feet of
the lighthouse.”
She recently led a save-the-
lighthouse rally to call atten-
tion to its plight and push the
state Department of Environ-
mental Protection to do some-
thing to save it before it falls
into the bay.
It’s a threat affecting light-
houses around the country and
the world, including those in
low-lying areas being inun-
dated by water, as well as
those on bluffs or cliffs being
eroded by storms and rising
sea levels.
“It’s happening faster than
AP Photos/Wayne Parry
Volunteers hold a ‘Save The Lighthouse’ rally near the East Point Lighthouse in Maurice River Township, N.J.
anybody had predicted,” said
Jeff Gales, executive director
of the U.S. Lighthouse Soci-
ety in Hansville, Washington.
While some of the light-
houses continue to be relied
upon for navigation, others
have been supplanted by more
modern technology, and are
treasured more for historical
and tourism purposes.
Climate change hastened
by manmade greenhouse
gases is not only melting polar
ice, adding to sea levels, but
the warmer waters are expand-
ing and some land formations
sinking.
Globally, sea levels have
been rising over the past cen-
tury, according to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and the
rate has increased in recent
decades. In New Jersey, seas
have risen by 1.3 feet over
the past 100 years, said Ben-
jamin Horton, a Rutgers Uni-
versity professor and leading
expert on climate change and
sea level rise. That is a faster
The East Point Lighthouse in Maurice River Township, N.J.
pace than for the past 2,000
years combined, he said.
Horton and other Rutgers
researchers project that by
2050, seas off New Jersey will
rise by an additional 1.4 feet.
Tim Harrison is the edi-
tor of Lighthouse Digest, a
Maine-based publication that
maintains a “Doomsday List”
of 53 lighthouses around the
U.S. deemed to be in danger of
being lost due to storms, ero-
sion or other causes.
“Lighthouses were built for
one purpose: to save lives,” he
said. “Now it’s our turn to step
up save these lighthouses.”
Rising seas have already
forced the relocation of sev-
eral lighthouses. In 1999, the
National Park Service moved
the Cape Hatteras Light-
house in Buxton, North Car-
olina, 2,900 feet inland, at a
cost of $11.8 million. In 1993,
the Southeast Lighthouse on
Block Island, Rhode Island,
was moved 300 feet inland.
In 2014 the Cape San Blas
Lighthouse was moved from
the edge of a storm-prone pen-
insula on Florida’s Gulf Coast
to a park in Port St. Joe. A year
later, the Gay Head Light-
house on Massachusetts’ Mar-
tha’s Vineyard was moved
129 feet back from an erod-
ing cliff.
Others were not so lucky.
The Galveston Jetty Light-
house in Texas and the Sabine
Bank Lighthouse in Louisiana
were lost to storms or rising
seas, and the Kauhola Point
Lighthouse on Hawaii’s Big
Island was demolished after
erosion nearby was deemed
too severe to save it, Harrison
said.
Lighthouses around the
country considered to be
in danger from rising seas
include the Sand Island Light-
house at the mouth of Mobile
Bay in Alabama, the Mor-
ris Island Lighthouse near
Charleston, South Carolina,
and the New Point Comfort
Lighthouse in Virginia.
Around
the
world,
encroaching seas are drawing
nearer to the Orfordness Light-
house in Suffolk, England; the
Troubridge Island Lighthouse
in South Australia; and the
Kiipsaar Lighthouse in Esto-
nia. In 2010, the Half Moon
Caye Lighthouse in Belize
was destroyed by a storm.
There are few easy
answers, financially or scien-
tifically. The East Point Light-
house is already on the high-
est spit of land around, which
is only a few inches above
sea level, so moving it is not
an option. Nor is constantly
dumping and plowing more
sand in front of it.
Patterson wants some sort
of bulkhead or barrier erected
between the bay and the light-
house to blunt the force of the
waves.
Larry Hajna, a spokesman
for the New Jersey Depart-
ment of Environmental Pro-
tection, acknowledges the
lighthouse has been “very vul-
nerable to storms due to ero-
sion” for years. And he real-
izes the sandbags the state and
local governments keep plop-
ping on the shoreline are a
stop-gap measure at best.
But while affirming the
state’s interest in saving the
lighthouse, he notes that mov-
ing or protecting it with rock-
filled cages could cost several
million dollars.
Because of the high cost
of moving or protecting the
lighthouses, volunteer pres-
ervation groups often partner
with governments to maintain
them; one has spent at least $5
million on the Morris Island
Lighthouse in South Carolina.
And cash-strapped govern-
ments often can’t spare funds
to save lighthouses.
Patterson, the New Jersey
lighthouse advocate, says a
barrier needs to be built near
the East Point Lighthouse
immediately.
“This history matters,” she
said. “We need to do some-
thing — now — while there’s
still something to save.”
Freedom Foundation files suit against Oregon unions
By AUBREY WIEBER
Capital Bureau
A conservative think tank
is suing two Oregon labor
unions, saying they are collect-
ing union dues in violation of
a U.S. Supreme Court decision
last June.
The class-action lawsuit,
Anderson et al. v. SEIU et al,
was filed Wednesday in U.S.
District Court in Portland.
In June, the Supreme ruled
in Janus v. AFSCME that forc-
ing all employees to pay dues
and fees when they aren’t
union members under “fair
share” provisions violated the
First Amendment.
The decision was consid-
ered by some to be a strong
blow to organized labor. But
in Oregon, where unions have
deep roots, the effect has been
minimal. Some union lead-
ers reported an increase in
membership.
In the months since, thou-
sands of workers in Oregon
have asked to withdraw from
the unions, according to Aaron
Withe, Oregon director of
Freedom Foundation, which
filed the case this week. About
one-fourth was told they could
withdraw from their unions,
but would have to pay dues
through an extended date set by
the labor contract. According
to the lawsuit, most have about
another year to pay.
Freedom Foundation is
contesting that extended
assessment.
Withe said that since they
signed the agreement without
knowing about the Janus deci-
sion, those agreements aren’t
valid.
Freedom Foundation sued
on behalf of 10 plaintiffs, but
claimed in the filing there are
there are hundreds more.
Plaintiffs
who
were
assessed by Service Employ-
ees International Union Local
503 include Loriann Ander-
son, an employee of Western
Oregon University; Rene Lay-
ton, an employee of the Wal-
lowa County District Attor-
ney’s Office; Dennis Richey, an
employee for Jackson County;
and Melinda Wiltse, who
works for Marion County.
Plaintiffs
represented
by American Federation of
State, County and Munici-
pal Employees Council 75 are
Kerrin Fiscus, employed by
the Oregon Board of Parole;
Kenneth Hill, employed by the
Oregon Military Department;
Michael Miller, employed by
the Oregon Department of
Corrections; Bernard Perkins,
who works for Lane County;
Kathie Simmons, employed by
the city of Portland and Kent
Wiles, who works for North-
West Senior and Disability
Services.
The suit names the two
unions, the employers and Katy
Coba, the director of the Ore-
gon Department of Administra-
tive Services, as defendants.
Both unions declined to
comment, as did the Oregon
Department of Administrative
Services.
Withe said the Freedom
Foundation found the plaintiffs
by helping workers opt out of
their unions, and offering legal
services to those still told they
had to pay dues.
Peter Starzynski, execu-
tive director of the Northwest
Accountability Project, said fil-
ing the lawsuit the day before
Thanksgiving when people
are less likely to be at work
was purposeful. The North-
west Accountability Project is
IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR!!!
a pro-union organization aimed
at shedding light on right-wing
organizations.
“Their litigation tactics are
as political as anything else
they do,” he said.
The accountability group
has long dealt with the Free-
dom Foundation, Starzynski
said.
“The Freedom Founda-
tion is a political organization
that is trying to destroy unions
in the northwest on behalf of
their out-of-state billionaire
funders,” Starzynski said. “Part
of their strategy is to file friv-
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unions’ time and money.”
But Withe said this isn’t
about destroying unions, it’s
about exposing union tactics.
“I think this is just a mon-
ey-making scheme by the
unions,” he said.
While the class-action suit
only has 10 members, Withe
said the Freedom Foundation
has helped 6,500 Oregonians
opt out of their union.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration of EO Media
Group, Pamplin Media Group
and Salem Reporter
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