Protecting the Monterey coastline; climate change could have devastating impact
The Monterey Bay attracts people from all over the world to its beautiful coastline. But experts say it won’t look the same decades from now.
“Lake El Estero will continue to join the ocean, if you will, and probably try to become an estuary in the future. So, we have a major transportation corridor, obviously Del Monte Avenue that connects both sides of our town. In the future that’s going to flood more and more,” said Kim Cole, managing principal planner for the city of Monterey.
City leaders said Cannery Row and the wharf will both be affected by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.
“We did a vulnerability assessment, which essentially evaluates the coast including projected sea level rise. Some of the projections say it may rise as much as five feet by 2100, which is very dramatic,” said Kinison Brown, principal planner with the EMC Planning Group.
On Wednesday, residents got a chance to talk about the Local Coast Program at a workshop. Also discussed were ways to respond to potential threats. One idea is to elevate Del Monte Avenue.
“Basically kind of getting out of the way of the water that might be coming in due to flooding or wave run up,” said Brown.
Other options include moving buildings and even lifting the entire wharf and Cannery Row. Scientists said gracefully retreating is about all we can do.
“The Pacific Ocean in particular has a lot more power and to try and think we can hold back the seas is sort of setting ourselves up for a New Orleans-like disaster,” said scientist David Revell.
