EarthquakesNapa earthquake may persuade lawmakers to fund earthquake warning system

Last Sunday’s Napa earthquake may push Congress to increase funding for an earthquake warning system, said Richard M. Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. At a 10 June hearing, Allen told a House subcommittee that building out the West Coast earthquake warning system, called ShakeAlert, would cost $120 million over five years, and an additional $16 million a year to operate. Today, ShakeAlert operates in a testing phase, and sensors notify researchers and volunteer participants when an earthquake has been detected.

After the 1971 San Fernando Valley earthquake, the General Accounting Office issued an assessment and called for a national earthquake research program. Years later, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused $6 billion in property damage, prompting Congress to pass a 1990 law which authorized the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to monitor seismic activity. Today, the agency operates the Advanced National Seismic System, a network of 2,500 sensors, which will reach 7,000 sensors nationwide when completed. The growth of the sensor network is partly due to the Obama’s administration allocation of $20 million towards the cause, as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.

McClatchy News reports that members of Congress are divided, often along party lines, on whether to fund the completion of ShakeAlert. In April, twenty-five House Democrats from California, Oregon, and Washington endorsed a proposal to provide $16.1 million for ShakeAlert, and while no Republicans signed the proposal, it was Representative Ken Calvert (R-California), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who restored funding for geodetic monitoring and seismic profiling. “What we need is the political resolve to deploy such a system,” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), said this week.

The Interior Department’s fiscal 2015 funding bill, approved by the House and Senate appropriations committees, include $5 million for earthquake early warning, which will go toward upgrading ShakeAlert. “I continue to be encouraged by the advancements in the USGS earthquake early warning system,” Calvert, who represents a Southern California district vulnerable to earthquakes, said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that he will be collaborating with “colleagues, especially those from areas affected by the Napa earthquake, to ensure we implement the early warning system in an effective manner.”

California governor Jerry Brown signed legislation last September for the state’s Office of Emergency Services to work with the California Seismic Safety Commission on developing a state or regional early warning system. Funding sources must be confirmed by January 2016.

“I think everybody would be very happy if the federal government were to play a significant part in funding,” Peggy Hellweg, operations manager of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, said on Tuesday. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable, given the role of the Geological Survey.”