Washington, D.C. - Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) pressed Congress for increased funding for an earthquake early warning system that could save lives and protect infrastructure from the devastating effects of a major quake.
“It’s pretty pathetic that countries such as Romania, Mexico and Mongolia are doing more to protect their citizens from severe earthquakes than the United States of America. We need two earthquake warning systems on the West Coast. We need a land based system that is capable of giving early warning when an earthquake is eminent. An early warning system could give Portland 2-3 minutes to shut down the Max system, get people off of bridges, or to shut down critical manufacturing. We also need a seabed based system that could detect earthquakes off the West Coast. If we had that system, we could potentially save thousands of lives and tens of billions of damage to critical assets. A state of the art system would cost us as much as the Pentagon spends in just twelve hours. Congress is being negligent-these systems exist, the technology works, but Congress lacks the will to make these needed investments," said DeFazio. [see video here ]
BACKGROUND
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that setting up a public early warning system for the entire West Coast would cost $38 million initially, and then $16 million in annual operating costs. Currently, the U.S. has invested roughly $1 million a year since 2006 to develop such a system. In contrast, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, China, Mongolia and Romania all have earthquake early warning systems that can give the public a warning before an earthquake tremor reaches their community.
Japan had seismic instruments on the seabed prior to the catastrophic 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed over 15,000 people, but they were not connected or monitoring and providing data in real time. After the earthquake, Japanese researchers found increased slow-slip earthquake activity in the days preceding the massive quake that could have provided additional advance warning if those sensors had been attached via cable.
Last month, the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee submitted a report that found the USGS earthquake budget is already overstretched, and that attempting to implement an early warning system given the current budget levels would “over-extend current USGS resources." The Committee urged that the USGS get additional funding in order to develop and operate an earthquake early warning system.
DeFazio joined over two dozen members of Congress in April in a letter asking for increased funding needed to establish an early warning system along the West Coast.
Testimony from the hearing’s witnesses can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwFLM4QLJqsNnvDe52AesUrK5rkP-SJis
