Kaine takes close look at local sea level rise

Sen. Tim Kaine stood in the Larchmont neighborhood street and took in the strange view.

"There are two over there," he said Thursday morning, pointing to homes across a sparkling inlet of the Lafayette River. "And two right there. There's one over there. And another one down there."

He was talking about older homes elevated on new cinder block foundations to rise above flood waters that plague the neighborhood.

The raised homes are scattershot, some here, some there. In a way, the scene reflects the lack of cohesive response, so far, to the threats of sea level rise and flooding.

The senator has taken a keen interest in those issues, becoming perhaps the region's loudest voice in Washington calling for a coordinated attack backed by federal funding. He was in town to tour sea level rise hot spots with city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.

Kaine's efforts augment work being done by Norfolk city officials, Old Dominion University and the Corps of Engineers, among others, on sea level rise.

Last month, Kaine sent letters to the heads of 11 federal agencies, asking them to participate in an ODU pilot project to develop a regional plan to respond to sea level rise and flooding.

Ray Toll, director of coastal resilience research at the university, said the letters jump-started the pilot project.

"It gave us credibility in the eyes of the federal government as an officially sanctioned effort," he said.

Kaine began his Norfolk tour at the downtown seawall near Nauticus. The 1970 project is an example of what the city will need more of, Deputy City Manager Ron Williams Jr. told Kaine.

Norfolk has identified hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects to protect the city from rising water, including flood walls at the mouths of the Lafayette River and Little Creek and near the Hague.

"We're in dire need of this type of investment, frankly," Williams told Kaine.

The question is where the money would come from.

The corps has embarked on a study of Norfolk's sea level rise and flooding problem, a three-year effort that could lead to federal funding, Williams said.

Kaine, a Senate budget committee member, said he'll push for money.

He said projects to address climate change impacts, such as sea level rise, are already getting federal funding.

"As long as we don't say the word 'climate,' we're dealing with climate change issues all the time," he said, citing money for Hurricane Sandy relief and changes to the National Flood Insurance Program.

Looking over the mishmash of elevated homes in Larchmont, Kaine suggested that getting money for big sea level rise projects would be a more efficient way to protect large swaths of Norfolk.

He said of raising existing homes, which costs about $150,000 each: "This is clearly the work you'd least like to do."

###