To the editor: 

In recent years, it has become common to walk out my front door near Newport’s waterfront in the historic Point neighborhood during a storm and see several inches of water surging up the road. For some, the challenges caused by sea rise and flooding still seem hypothetical, but for me and others in my district, the issue is on our doorsteps — sometimes over them.

While Rhode Island possesses the research and intellectual capital to tackle sea-level rise, I witnessed a communication divide between those studying the issue, stakeholders affected by it and leaders capable of addressing it. For that reason, one of my first priorities upon my election to the House was to sponsor the creation of a commission to study and bring attention to the economic risks that sea rise and flooding pose to our state.

 The commission, whose members hail from real estate, hospitality and tourism, academia, science and public policy, worked for six months, conducting case studies on the Providence Port, the Newport waterfront and the Westerly beachfront, and listening to municipal, state, and regional experts.

What we found was that businesses from beachside restaurants in Westerly to marine shipping corporations in Providence are beginning to understand the threat of sea level rise and conceptualize solutions, but we still have much work to do to ensure the Ocean State adequately adapts.  In the end, the state must adopt a philosophical approach to meeting goals that embrace the broader aim of protecting Rhode Island’s economy from rising waters. 

Toward that end, I have introduced legislation requiring continuing training on sea rise for all local zoning and planning boards, to ensure that those who have the front-line duties of determining whether, where and how we build our communities have the tools to ensure new development and redevelopment is built with an eye toward protecting assets from rising sea levels.

This is possibly one of the most critically important things we can do to protect public and private assets, as well as lives and livelihoods, from flooding. Empowering local planners to recognize risks and require that development protect against them will do more than protect their investments; it will also help keep insurance costs for all Rhode Island properties from rising rapidly.  

I am also working to design a flood audit program similar to the existing free energy audit program offered by RISE Engineering through National Grid to help businesses and residential property owners in the flood plain understand and mitigate their own risks.

 At the commission’s request, the Department of Business Regulation is also considering regulatory training for real estate agents on sea rise and flooding as part of their continuing education requirements as a means for making improvements to existing properties when they hit the market to ensure their protection from flooding, and helping agents protect Rhode Island buyers from making risky investments.

Our study commission learned many important things about our fragile coast, but mainly we learned that there is a high cost to doing nothing. A do-nothing approach will likely cause insurance premiums to increase and homes and businesses to flood near and far from our 400 miles of coastline.

It is cheaper to act now.

Rep. Lauren H. Carson

Newport