Awareness rises along with the waters

In May 2013, state resource planner Susan Love addressed Sussex County Council about sea level rise and its impact on Delaware.

Not everybody wanted to listen.

County Councilman Sam Wilson said, “They don’t have no facts. It’s almost b.s., to be honest with you.” Wilson went on to say that if sea level rise hadn’t happened in the last 6,000 to 7,000 years, “why is it going to happen now?”

But Love, also known as “Susie Sea Level,” thinks the message is starting to get through, if not to Sussex County Council, then to the mayors and town councils of coastal Delaware.

“Fenwick Island, South Bethany, Bethany, Dewey, Lewes have all come to our program for grants to work on coastal resiliency,” said Love, who works for Delaware Coastal Programs, a section of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Rehoboth Beach was already working on the issue, she said. In addition, her agency is working with Milton about considering the impact of sea level rise as the town prepares its comprehensive plan. (And yes, sea level rise affects inland areas, too.) Recently, DNREC, with the help of many groups such as The Nature Conservancy, Delaware Center for the Inland Bays and the Sierra Club, sponsored Sea Level Rise Awareness Week, kicking off with a news conference at the DuPont Nature Center near Slaughter Beach on Delaware Bay.

It turned out to be the perfect day to highlight the effects of sea level rise. Driving into a storm while headed for a bayfront community, I’ve come to expect flooded roadways.

Not that day. It was bright and sunny. But I should have been paying attention to the wind, a strong breeze from the northeast, perfect for driving bay waters inland. And I should have consulted the tide charts, a common practice for coastal community residents.

As I neared the center, the waters washing over the road became progressively deeper. At one point - I drive a fairly low-riding sedan - I would have turned back had I not seen similar cars ahead of me successfully navigate the tidal surge.

Probably not the smartest decision, in terms of car maintenance, a thought echoed by Brenna Goggin, an environmental advocate for the Delaware Nature Society, in her opening remarks.

“I strongly encourage you to go to a car wash following this event,” she said. I’m guessing most Slaughter Beach residents drive high-riding trucks.

It’s striking to note that the modern, attractive DuPont Nature Center, an ideal place to observe birds and the annual spawning of horseshoe crabs, opened only seven years ago, in 2007.

I can’t imagine such an investment being made nowadays for a center lying at the end of such a vulnerable roadway.

Nor were the road conditions particularly unusual. Slaughter Beach Councilwoman Kathleen Lock, laughing ruefully after the news conference, said the roads flood “a dozen or more times a year,” that day’s tides likely exacerbated by the so-called Super Moon.

Lock was one of two elected officials who attended that day, the other being Mayor Ted Becker of Lewes.

Lock spoke of Slaughter Beach’s proud history - it was founded in 1681 - and its more recent efforts to protect its shoreline. In the mid-’70s, the state built dunes and planted beach grass at Slaughter Beach, as part of a pilot program. It worked, in a limited way, but it didn’t stop the flooding.

The dunes have held, she said, “but our flooding comes from the wetlands, which has the effect of basically limiting insurance claims from flood damage. We just wait for the floodwaters to recede and get out the mops and brooms and clean up.”

But it takes more than mops and brooms to tackle larger problems.

“One potentially deadly issue occurred after floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy infiltrated the town’s water supply and contaminated our drinking water with unhealthy levels of e. coli [bacteria],” she said.

Fortunately, the water company quickly shut down the pump and repaired the wellhead. “There were no long-lasting ramifications,” she said.

The town has received a state grant to fund a wastewater management feasibility study. Another grant, if received, would raise some of the homes most threatened by floodwaters.

Lock and other local officials don’t waste time questioning sea level rise. They’re too busy dealing with the issue firsthand.

Eventually, the members of Sussex County Council will have to deal with it, too.

Said Love, “The constituency is increasingly becoming convinced that this is a problem that needs to be addressed by government. The message is getting through. And I think Sussex County is going to start hearing that message.”

The sooner the better.

CORRECTION: Last week I referred to the full name of NARFE incorrectly. It is now called the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.

Don Flood is a former newspaper editor living near Lewes. He can be reached at floodpolitics@gmail.com.