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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019
Critics blast Oregon repeal of tsunami-zone building ban
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
NEWPORT — With sun-
light sparkling off surround-
ing Yaquina Bay, workers are
putting up an ocean-studies
building, smack in the mid-
dle of an area expected to one
day be hit by a tsunami.
Experts say it’s only a
matter of time before a shift
in a major fault line off the
Oregon coast causes a mas-
sive earthquake that gener-
ates a tsunami as much as
seven stories tall.
Even as work on Oregon
State University’s Marine
Studies Building was under-
way in Newport, the Legis-
lature went a step further and
repealed a ban on construc-
tion of new “critical facili-
ties” in tsunami inundation
zones, allowing fi re stations,
police stations and schools to
be built in the potential path
of a tsunami.
Passage of the bill in June
was little noticed during one
of the most tumultuous leg-
islative sessions in Oregon
history. But it has since been
roundly criticized — includ-
ing by Gov. Kate Brown,
who told journalists the bill’s
passage was one of her disap-
pointments, even though she
signed the measure and pre-
viously said it benefi ted eco-
nomic development.
Chris Goldfi nger, an Ore-
gon State University profes-
sor and an earthquake geol-
ogist, says putting the $60
million oceanography build-
ing in the path of a tsunami is
“beyond ironic,” and allow-
ing even more construction
threatens lives in favor of
development.
“It’s foolhardy. In every
other country in the world,
best practice for tsunamis is
avoidance, not building in
a tsunami zone,” Goldfi n-
ger said at a symposium for
journalists in Newport that
included a tour of the con-
struction project.
Proponents of the uni-
versity facility point out that
the building will withstand
strong earthquakes and be
higher than the biggest tsu-
nami. It will feature a roof-
top evacuation site that can
accommodate more than 900
people, accessed via an exte-
rior ramp.
Two days of supplies,
including water, food and
fi rst aid, will be kept on the
roof, said Cinamon Mof-
fett, research facility coordi-
nator for the marine center.
Once the water subsides, sur-
vivors would be evacuated
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
A ‘ghost forest’ of Sitka spruces juts up from the beach in Neskowin. They were likely buried by tsunami debris 2,000 years
earlier, and partially uncovered by storms in 1997.
to a community college on a
nearby hill, she said.
An earthquake in the Cas-
cadia subduction zone, which
extends in the ocean off
Northern California to Can-
ada’s Vancouver Island, has
a 37 percent probability of
happening off Oregon in the
next 50 years, with a slightly
lower chance of one strik-
ing near Washington state,
Goldfi nger said. Cascadia
earthquakes have an average
magnitude of around 9, mak-
ing them among the world’s
biggest.
Evidence of a Casca-
dia earthquake’s awesome
destructive power is visible
30 miles up the coast from
Newport.
There, a “ghost forest” of
Sitka spruces juts up from
a beach in the tiny town of
Neskowin. An earthquake
2,000 years ago likely caused
the ground beneath the trees
to plunge, and tsunami debris
buried them. The remnants
were partially uncovered
by storms in 1997. Today,
the barnacle-encrusted trees
stand like sentinels, fac-
ing the Pacifi c Ocean with
vacation homes and a motel
nearby.
The last time the ocean
reared up from a Casca-
dia earthquake was in 1700.
The estimated magnitude 9
quake sent a tsunami across
the Pacifi c into the coast
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
Scott Ashford, dean of Oregon State University’s college of
engineering, describes to the media the university’s Marine
Studies Building, which is being built in a tsunami inundation
zone in Newport.
of Japan, where it fl ooded
farm fi elds, damaged fi sher-
men’s shacks and ascended
a castle moat. In the Pacifi c
Northwest and Canada, the
impact was far worse, and is
described in the folklore of
indigenous peoples. One tale
describes a struggle between
a thunderbird and a whale
that caused the earth to shake
and the ocean to wash away
people and homes.
Oregon became a leader
in tsunami preparedness
when the Legislature, in
1995, banned construction
of certain public facilities in
inundation zones.
Vancouver Island in Can-
ada’s British Columbia
province was slammed by
the 1700 tsunami. But no
law prohibits construction
of public buildings in tsu-
nami zones there, accord-
ing to Emergency Manage-
ment BC. Washington state
requires municipalities and
counties to establish rules to
limit development in areas
that are frequently fl ooded
or could be hit by tsunamis,
landslides or other calamities.
California
has
no
state-mandated development
restrictions in tsunami zones,
said Rick Wilson, senior
engineering geologist with
the California Geological
Survey. But the state recently
adopted new language in its
building code requiring that
certain types of buildings be
constructed to withstand tsu-
nami forces, Wilson said.
Other states are moving to
do the same, using standards
from the American Society
of Civil Engineers.
Japan, reacting to a 2011
earthquake and tsunami that
left more than 18,000 dead
or presumed dead, passed
a law allowing towns to set
tsunami warning zones and
make evacuation and recon-
struction plans. The govern-
ment is spending $9 billion to
build giant seawalls around
the northern coastline. Mov-
ing to higher ground is
not required, though some
coastal communities have
done so.
“Oregon has gone from
sort of a leader in this to full
reverse,” said Goldfi nger,
who was attending a seis-
mology conference in Japan
when the 2011 earthquake
hit.
Oregon lawmakers over-
whelmingly repealed the
1995 construction ban in
June, as tensions in the Capi-
tol ratcheted up over Repub-
lican opposition to a bill
addressing global warming.
Few people attended hear-
ings at which lawmakers
from coastal districts testifi ed
in favor of the repeal.
Democratic Rep. David
Gomberg, one of its spon-
sors, told members of a
House committee to imag-
ine the impacts if the state
banned new schools, parking
garages and police and fi re
stations in their communities.
“What would be the con-
sequence of that, to your abil-
ity to get insurance on your
home, your ability to attract a
new business into a neighbor-
hood that’s not safe enough
for fi re departments, your
ability to resell your home
in a neighborhood not safe
enough for police depart-
ments?” Gomberg asked.
He said the state geol-
ogy department should “help
us rather than to stop ... our
communities growing, thriv-
ing or continuing.”
Gomberg said his bill
gives the department respon-
sibility for advising where a
new inundation line should
be and how risks can be mit-
igated. He also said he will
introduce legislation for Ore-
gon to adopt the American
Society of Civil Engineers’
tsunami and earthquake
building standards.
Republican Sen. Brian
Boquist, who was at the cen-
ter of a Republican walk-
out over the global warm-
ing bill, was the only senator
to vote against the repeal.
Boquist said in an email that
it allows public entities to
build, knowing full well the
buildings will not survive a
tsunami.
It is too soon to tell if
coastal cities will use the new
leeway to build facilities in
inundation zones. Some have
been doing the opposite. The
town of Seaside is moving
schools out of the tsunami
zone.
Newport Mayor Dean
Sawyer said his city has no
plans to build critical facili-
ties in the inundation zone.
But he praised the Marine
Studies Building for its roof-
top evacuation site, which
can fi t the population of an
entire neighborhood of his
fi shing town.
“We consider it to be a
unique solution,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Corval-
lis Gazette-Times noted in an
editorial that while it is possi-
ble to design a building that
can survive an earthquake
and tsunami, “that doesn’t
answer the question of why
we should take the risk in the
fi rst place.”
The newspaper urged
lawmakers to reassess the
new law when they convene
next year.
Gillnetters concerned by EPA’s shift on mining near Bristol Bay
By MALLORY GRUBEN
The Daily News
LONGVIEW,
Wash.
— Lower Columbia River
gillnetters say the Trump
administration’s recent deci-
sion to withdraw protections
from Bristol Bay could pave
the path for a giant gold and
copper mine in s outhwest
Alaska that would threaten
their source of sockeye
salmon — and their chief
livelihood as fi shermen.
Members of the fi shing
industry said the move is
indicative of the president’s
“pro-business, anti-environ-
ment” agenda, one they say
is shared by Alaska Gov.
Mike Dunleavy.
“I think it’s a general
policy push in the Trump
(administration). You look at
their track record: They’ve
lightened up environmen-
tal standards. ... Some of it
is not bad, but this is partic-
ularly bad,” said Steve Fick,
owner of Fishhawk Fisheries
in Astoria and Kenai, Alaska.
The decision highlights how
Dunleavy “appears to have
special interests that are
directly affecting the larg-
est, most productive salmon
population in the world.”
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency in July
withdrew a 2014 Obama-
era proposal to restrict min-
ing in the Bristol Bay water-
shed. The proposal would
have prevented the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
from issuing permits for the
so-called Pebble Mine. The
decision came shortly after
the Army Corps closed a
Jason Sear/ KDLG
Fishermen are worried about the impact of the Pebble Mine on Bristol Bay.
public comment period for a
draft environmental impact
statement for the project, and
just one day after Gov. Dun-
leavy met with President
Donald Trump, according to
CNN reports.
Pebble Limited Partner-
ship, the Alaska-based com-
pany proposing the mine,
celebrated the EPA’s deci-
sion, noting that it removed
a “pre emptive veto” that
would have blocked their
project.
“Finally, this a dministra-
tion has reversed the out-
rageous federal govern-
ment overreach infl icted on
the s tate of Alaska by the
Obama a dministration,” said
PLP CEO Tom Collier. “The
pre emptive veto was an
action by an a dministration
that sought to vastly expand
EPA’s authority to regulate
land use on state, private and
native-owned lands through-
out the United States, and in
doing so kill one of Ameri-
ca’s most important min-
eral projects before a devel-
opment plan was proposed
or a comprehensive Envi-
ronmental Impact Statement
(EIS) permitting review was
undertaken.”
The EPA said in a July
news release that its action
does not approve Pebble’s
permit application or deter-
mine a particular outcome in
the Army Corps’ permitting
process. It does, however,
create an opportunity for the
mine to acquire permits and
start operations, should the
Corps deem it OK.
According to the release,
the EPA withdrew its 2014
decision because more spe-
cifi c information about the
mining project was made
available in recent years. For
example, the decision was
based on three hypothetical
scenarios for the mine site,
which all differed from the
actual project proposal sub-
mitted to the Army Corps in
2017 for review.
There is also now a draft
environmental impact state-
ment, released by the Army
Corps, and thousands of
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public comments on the
project that weren’t avail-
able before, according to the
EPA.
But fi shermen, who have
staunchly opposed the mine
since PLP pitched it in 2012,
worry that the EPA’s deci-
sion could advance a project
with dramatic consequences
for the most productive
sockeye fi shery in the world.
“The infrastructure that
will go into that mine has
to affect the surrounding
areas. I haven’t seen any-
thing or any science (show-
ing that the mine) won’t
affect the surrounding natu-
ral resources,” Fick said.
The Pebble Mine, an
operation the EPA estimates
will cover an area larger than
Manhattan, would include
an open pit mine site, a
270-megawatt power gener-
ating plant, a transportation
corridor crossing Iliamna
Lake, a new port and a 188-
mile natural gas pipeline. It
would be located north of
77-mile-long Iliamna Lake
— Alaska’s largest lake —
and the headwaters of the
Kvichak and Nushagak riv-
ers, which feed Bristol Bay.
Bristol Bay produces
almost half of the world’s
wild sockeye salmon. On
average, about 37.5 million
salmon return on the water-
shed each year.
Fishermen say the EPA’s
decision to withdraw the
Obama-era restriction likely
was politically motivated.
Jim Wells, president of
the Astoria-based Salmon
for All gillnetters associa-
tion, said the Trump a dmin-
istration has been “anti-en-
vironmental, pro-business,”
and the governor of Alaska
is facing pressure from
advocacy groups outside of
the fi shing industry.
Fick expects continued
court fi ghts over the project,
delaying any potential start
date. However, if the chips
fall in favor of the mine,
Fick joked that commercial
fi shermen might try block-
ing access on the river to
the construction site to stop
the mining company from
bringing in equipment.
“There is a very strong
basis for opposition to this
mine,” Fick said. “It’s irre-
sponsible the way they’re
trying to push it through.”
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