CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 8, 2022, A new website and interactive mapping tool released today by the Southern Environmental Law Center will allow citizens, activists and policymakers to look at how both current and proposed infrastructure will fare in a wetter future as sea-level rise and climate change reshape the Southeast coast.
The roads leading to the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge in North Carolina could be flooded on sunny days in the future if sea level climbs just two feet, rendering the span useless. A proposed spaceport on the Georgia coast could be submerged by a Category 2 hurricane. A 21-million-ton pile of toxic coal ash on the banks of the Mobile River in Alabama could likewise be threatened by Category 2 hurricane, and that threat only increases as sea levels continue to rise.
A breach could spread toxic ash into the river, through the Tensaw Delta, and into Mobile Bay. A proposed 9,000-acre housing development in Charleston could flood now with just a Category 1 hurricane. And rising seas could put parts of the development underwater before the mortgages are paid off. Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay could be submerged now by the storm surge of a Category 1 hurricane, or by the bay in the coming years if the sea level rises just two feet.
The Changing Coast designers incorporated about a dozen databases to show a comprehensive picture of how future flooding will affect coastal Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, The Southern Environmental Law Center takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 170, including 90 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.
southernenvironment.org
This article was shared with Prittle Prattle News as a Press Release.