SEATTLE – Climate experts are worried about the danger that sea level rise poses across Western Washington.

FOX 13 spoke with a top local expert on the specific threats to homes and businesses on the water. We asked Ian Miller, a coastal hazards specialist for Washington Sea Grant, if people should think twice before buying waterfront property on Puget Sound or the Washington coast – given that sea level rise could lead to more erosion and flooding in the decades ahead.

What they’re saying:

Miller said there isn’t a lot of information that’s tailored to homeowners on sea level rise. He said Hawaii adopted a policy that requires the real estate world there to disclose the risk of rising sea levels.

Miller said homeowners who’ve asked him for advice on this issue have varied opinions: some buyers accept the risk while others choose to look elsewhere.

“It’s really on the homeowner to do the background research which you know is asking a lot,” said Miller.

Miller said we can learn from the flooding that happened in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood back in December 2022. At the time, high tides and low atmospheric pressure flooded homes, roads and businesses. Miller said these types of events could become the “new normal” in the decades ahead, adding that any place along the coastal shorelines is at risk from rising water levels.

“It can also influence things like groundwater – water that’s under the ground that is influenced by the ocean, and that can rise also. That can actually lead to flooding in places that we might not expect that are relatively far from the shoreline,” explained Miller.

By the end of the century, some data suggest up to two to three feet of sea level rise in Seattle. This could accelerate erosion, putting buildings and homes in bluff areas – like Whidbey Island, for example – at risk.

Rising waters can also threaten local economies like the fishing industry and ports in Puget Sound. This could have ripple effects on products that need to get shipped and delivered across the Pacific Northwest.

“These are economic engines for our state, and they rely on infrastructure that’s in our area. So that really critical infrastructure gets put at risk as sea levels rise which threatens people beyond, you know, even Western Washington and Central and Eastern Washington. Products need to get shipped through ports and things like that,” said Jimmy Kralj, climate resilience strategy planner with the Washington State Department of Ecology.

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/sea-level-rise-threat