Hundreds of toxic sites in California threatened by sea level rise due to climate change

Hundreds of toxic sites in California will be threatened as sea levels rise due to climate change, according to environmental health professors at UC Berkeley and UCLA.

The professors released a new project Tuesday called “Toxic Tides” that highlights the impact rising sea levels will have on California in the next 100 years.

More than three feet of sea level rise will occur by 2100 if nothing is done about climate change, according to the project. 

The rise in sea levels would threaten 400 hazardous facilities and 2,100 homes in California.

The facilities that are under threat include power plants, refineries, industrial facilities and hazardous waste sites. 

The majority of at-risk facilities are in Alameda, Orange, San Mateo, Los Angeles and Contra Costa counties. 

“Because many of these facilities are disproportionately located in poor communities and communities of color, climate resilience strategies must address the disproportionate impacts of SLR and associated flooding threats faced by environmental justice communities,” the project states. 

By 2050, disadvantaged communities are five times more likely to have a threat of a facility getting flooded. By 2100, the same communities are six times more likely to have a facility flooded. 

The Union of Concerned Scientists in July said there are 876 hazardous waste sites under danger from flooding in the U.S. in the next 20 years.