Atlantis Effect? Rising sea level worries shoreline areas in Pacific Northwest

SeattlePI: Washington's low-lying capital city is a bit nervous in planning a new $38 million City Hall near the shoreline of Puget Sound, fearing that global warming and rising waters could submerge much of the downtown in this century.

Climate change experts say one of the most profound and visible effects of global warming will be felt along the thousands of miles of shoreline along the Pacific Coast and the Sound, where even a rise of a few feet can submerge vast acres of prime farm, forest, businesses and residential land, sending folks heading for higher ground and new ways of coping...

Living on the southernmost shores of Puget Sound, Olympia leaders and townspeople are used to keeping watchful eye on the sea, since tidal surges can waterlog or threaten a downtown built on mud-flats and fill.

One of the state's epicenters of environmental activism, Olympia wrote its first sea-level assessment 14 years ago and created global warming panels even before that. The city holds community "call to action" forums, complete with scary map projections of how downtown would look like under various scenarios. Planners already are thinking about ways to armor the town's most endangered shoreline, and hope never to abandon the peninsula jutting into Budd Inlet.

The issue was brought into stark relief by the council's recent debate over whether to build the new city hall on prime Port of Olympia land - or head for the hills. The city decided to build in harm's way, raising the project two feet above current flood level, but conceding that water may lap at the doorstep before the end of the century.

The vote to brave the tides was a considered a symbolic gesture, too. The unacceptable alternative, says Mayor Mark Foutch, is to essentially abandon the downtown core, which includes the community center, farmers' market, regional sewage treatment plant, child-care center, and an entire business and housing district.

…For people still building or buying near shoreline, [one scientist] says "It would be wise to ask what is your comfort level with risk over the next 50 or 60 years?"…

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