The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report in March about the resiliency and debris from natural disasters "has important implications" for the nation's Pacific Southwest.
The Resiliency and Natural Disaster Debris Workshop Report was compiled following a series of virtual workshops in 2021 between EPA and its partners to study resiliency and natural disaster debris, federal environmental officials said March 10.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman
| epa.gov/
"The report published today has important implications for our Pacific Southwest region, especially for communities in coastal areas in California and Hawaii and the Pacific Islands," EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in the release. "Planning now to reduce disaster debris through resilient design, reuse, recycling, and composting can better protect vulnerable communities, support equitable disaster recovery and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
In Region 9, the report looked into that region's sea-level rise, tropical storms, earthquakes and wildfires throughout the Pacific Southwest and Pacific Islands region last year. The information also looked into flooding and extreme storms that have become common in the Great Lakes region.
The report highlights the importance of resiliency and effective planning for natural disaster debris management, particularly in the face of increasing frequency and more extreme global events.
Natural disasters are hardly new, and the report details debris from storms such as Hurricane Katrina from the Gulf of Mexico in 2005, including efforts by volunteer agencies such as Mercy Corps to deal with the resulting debris. According to the report, what is new is the increasing frequency of such events and the significant amounts of debris they generate. Natural disasters and subsequent debris are, more and more, triggered by climate change and the resulting rise in sea levels, according to the news release.
The report is based on key takeaways from two virtual workshops last year that studied natural disaster events in 2021 in EPA's Region 5, which encompasses Serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and 35 tribal nations; and the agency's Region 9, made up of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and 148 tribal nations.
More than 100 experts in fields such as disaster debris planning and management, disaster response and environmental justice attended the workshops, representing federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, in addition to attendees from non-governmental organizations and academia.
The report included discussions of climate change, environmental justice and jobs, and how to protect the world's environment and public health.
Participants identified practical steps that the federal government and others can take to better manage natural disaster debris and resilience. Those steps include reducing natural disaster debris generation, more equitably and safely managing such debris, leveraging funding resources and the development and sharing of case studies, best practices and pilot projects.
EPA also made public in the news release of its 2019 Planning for Natural Disaster Debris guidance.
