A New Report Says The Pentagon Isn’t Doing Enough To Protect Military Bases From Sea Level Rise

Speaker 1: 00:00 A new government report says many military bases aren't moving fast enough to protect themselves from the effects of climate change and they aren't getting proper support from the Pentagon. Jay Price reports for the American homefront project. Speaker 2: 00:14 The report comes from the government accountability office. It looked at the sample of 23 installations and found most hadn't used projections of climate change effects such as sea level rise. The report said that planners on bases need more direction from the Pentagon in the reports words not assessing risks or using climate projections and installation planning may expose department of defense facilities to greater than anticipated damage or degradation as a result of extreme weather or climate related fabrics. For many installations, that kind of damage isn't just often some distant nebulous future. Speaker 3: 00:49 Where'd the Farragut field seawall on the campus of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Speaker 2: 00:53 Commander David McKinney is a spokesman for the academy. Those thrumming diesel motors belonged to three of the special 108 foot long boats. Used to teach naval cadets skills like coastal navigation. Sitting beside a waterway is crucial for the Naval Academy, but that water also has become a threat. Speaker 3: 01:12 What we're looking at right now are some sinkholes that have developed on the seawall that faces the seven river. These have developed over time. The Sea wall has been in place Speaker 2: 01:21 in 2003 Hurricane Isabelle flooded buildings on campus causing more than $100 million in damage. That was such a big jolt that since then the Naval Academy has taken some of the most aggressive steps of any military installation to protect itself from the rising water. The academy created an advisory Sea level committee and among other things drew up plans to rebuild this seawall higher. Speaker 3: 01:45 We're going to take into account that water level will most likely rise in the future and build it for about two and a half feet higher than what it's currently constructed with the ability that we'll be able to even add height onto it. Speaker 2: 01:57 The academy also has designed a new building not only to be high enough to avoid flood damage itself, but also to act as a flood control wall to help protect the campus. Annapolis has about 40 floods a year now, up from fewer than half a dozen, just a few decades Speaker 3: 02:13 go. We encounter what we call a nuisance flooding quite a bit, where when tides rise, it over floods the road and you just have to deal with it. Speaker 2: 02:21 Other bases like naval station Norfolk or taking even more elaborate steps. The world's largest naval base has been working closely for years with a host of partners on things like projects to protect key roads in the area and it's been building new structures like barracks and piers higher. But experts agree with the GAO report that the military isn't moving quickly enough. Dod is not adequately prepared for this retired marine brigadier general. Stephen Chaney is chief executive of the American security project, a Washington think tank that's been pressing for a more robust military response to climate change. Chaney knows one the most threatened bases intimately. He wants commanded Parris Island, South Carolina, the iconic Marine Corps training base for new recruits. It's expected to be exposed to significant flooding in the next few decades, and a senior marine commander has said it may need to start building seawalls plus islands and trouble when you've got various sections that are consistently flooded, combined with catastrophic weather. Speaker 2: 03:21 You can't build a sea wall around that entire base. I mean, you're talking miles here. Cheney says at least Paris island can be moved somewhere safer because it doesn't have to be on the coast. That's not as easy for basis. Like Canplas Yoon, we're marines trained for amphibious landings or deep water ports like Norfolk, your coastlines going to erode, you're going to go under water and you're going to have to find a way to get around it. He says, a big part of the problem is that the Trump administration has been downplaying the threats posed by climate change. Even as three bases are grappling with nearly $10 billion in storm and flood damage in less than a year. It's been difficult to get them to even admit that glomerate changes causing destruction of major bases and interrupting training worldwide. But the Pentagon did agree with the findings and the GAO report. Among other things, I had said that it will begin providing basis with better guidance on which sea level rise projections to use, which in Annapolis, Maryland. This is Jay price reporting. This story was produced by the American homefront project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting. Speaker 4: 04:37 [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible].