EarthquakesFirst federal funds for West Coast earthquake warning system
Efforts by California officials to expand an earthquake warning system for the West Coast gained ground last Tuesday as the House Appropriations Committeerecommended $5 million — the first federal funds specifically for the project — toward the warning system. Analysts project the system will cost $38.3 million to build, and $16.1 million a year to operate and maintain. The $5 million would allow the purchase and installation of additional sensors and hiring of staff.
Efforts by California officials to expand an earthquake warning system for the West Coast gained ground last Tuesday as the House Appropriations Committee recommended $5 million — the first federal funds specifically for the project — toward the warning system. Analysts project the system will cost $38.3 million to build, and $16.1 million a year to operate and maintain. The $5 million would allow the purchase and installation of additional sensors and hiring of staff.
“It’s critical that the West Coast implement an earthquake early-warning system that will give us a heads up before the ‘big one’ hits, so we can save lives and protect infrastructure,” said Representative Adam Schiff (D-California), who led a group of West Coast lawmakers in seeking the funding.
The Los Angeles Times reports that despite the bipartisan support for the project, election-year debates over other issues could keep Congress from passing a series of spending bills, many of which include special projects like the earthquake warning system. The Senate has yet to pass a bill to fund the U.S. Geological Survey for the fiscal year beginning 1 September, which may include funding for the warning system, but Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) did include language in a Senate Appropriations Committee report which would encourage the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give priority to early-warning systems when the agency considers grant-funding requests.
The Geological Survey, in cooperation with scientists at academic institutions including California Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Washington, has been testing a prototype system in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas for the past two years. “This is great news for the West Coast,” said Richard M. Allen, director of University of California - Berkeley’s Seismological Laboratory. “Our demonstration system currently alerts a few test users of earthquakes. This funding will start us on the path to a public system that will benefit everyone.”
Allen testified last June before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources that the system currently delivers warnings to about seventy-five people, including researchers, departments of emergency management for San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, along with a few private sector firms.
It would take about five years to deploy a complete system of sensors along the West Coast. Scientists have designed the system to detect waves radiating from the epicenter of an earthquake, and notify people through phones, radio, and other digital devices.
