Richmond setting up plan to deal with impending sea-level rise along its 32-mile coastline

Early next year, Richmond will begin developing its Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Resiliency Plan to address the risks of rising sea levels. 

It will involve city officials, environmental scientists, engineers, and community members implementing strategies to protect and restore the Richmond shoreline after decades of heavy industrial activity. 

This initiative gives the city a head start on the planning process mandated by California’s new sea level rise legislation, which requires local governments to have a plan in place by 2034. 

“We have 32 miles of shoreline, so we have the most at risk, and a lot of our low-income communities are near the shoreline,” said Councilmember Cesar Zepeda, who also serves as a commissioner on the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. “So we have to make sure that we’re protecting and we’re staying in front of whatever issues can come about.”

Next month, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission will vote on a Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan that will provide guidance to cities and agencies planning for sea level rise. It will contain sea-level-rise scenarios and corresponding strategies to assist cities in assessing their vulnerabilities. Richmond’s location and history of industrial activity pose unique risks for rising water. 

At a September community event, Kristina Hill, a professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley, discussed the new and unprecedented risk that groundwater rise — as a result of sea level rise — poses to toxic sites. She explained that as groundwater levels rise, contaminants from toxic sites could migrate into residential areas, increasing people’s exposure.  

“When sea level rises and groundwater equilibrates or reaches an equilibrium with the sea, it’s going to be higher, and we haven’t had to design for that before,” Hill said. 

Concerned about toxic contamination, the City Council added an inventory of toxic sites to the Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Resiliency Plan. 

“There are undoubtedly a lot of toxins that maybe have not been identified, sites that have not been characterized yet as to what might be on their site and sampling would need to be done to find out more,” Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin said in a presentation at the community event. 

Bay Area to be hit hard

Sea-level rise from the changing climate is already happening. In a 2018 report, the California Energy Commission revealed the Bay Area had experienced more than 8 inches of sea level rise and could face another foot of rise by 2050. It also said the area is expected to experience two-thirds of the state’s economic losses from sea-level damage, despite the region only accounting for one-third of California’s coast. 

A 2023 study involving numerous Bay Area cities and governmental agencies estimates that while responding to sea level rise will cost around $110 billion, the cost of doing nothing would exceed $230 billion, mostly in damages to infrastructure along the coast.  

“Sea level rise is a phenomenon that’s going to impact basically the entire bay,” said Rylan Gervase, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s director of legislative and external affairs. “If you live in the bay, you’re going to be impacted by the effects of sea level rise and climate change, no matter what community you live in.”

The Richmond City Council took its first steps in June by approving a $200,000 contract for the project with consulting firms Mithun and Environmental Science Associates. The contract includes a community engagement effort that will be led by the Watershed Project. 

“We’re going to work side by side with them and it’s going to be like a dance with the designers and the engineers, because every time they develop a new phase, then we lead with community engagement,” said Naama Raz-Yaseef, Watershed Project senior manager for the Climate Ready Communities Program.

The council anticipates covering planning and implementation of sea-level-rise adaptation projects with a $1.5 million grant awarded in September by the California Ocean Protection Council. 

Lina Velasco, community development director, said that the city will continue pursuing funding to keep the project on track and ahead of deadline. 

Contra Costa County is creating its own sea-level-rise plan that will include the needs of several cities and North Richmond, County Supervisor John Gioia said. In North Richmond, sea level rise planning has already begun with the ongoing development of its living levee project. Marsh restoration, planted embankments, parks and other modifications will create a natural levee stretching for 7 miles, from the Richmond Chevron refinery to Giant Marsh. 

Residents can stay updated with the Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Resiliency Plan by signing up for notifications through the “Notify Me” list. 

(Top photo of Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline, by Riley Ramirez)

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