On Tuesday the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2018 (people call it NEHRP, pronounced "neeherp," which makes it sound like baby herpes) passed through Congress and is headed to the President’s desk. Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapal was the only Democrat to co-sponsor the House's version of the bill, though Sen. Diane Feinstein is leading the charge in the Senate. Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell co-sponsored the Senate version, too.
The bill authorizes federal agencies to coordinate with state and local governments on various earthquake preparedness measures, from data collection to increasing building resilience to installing early warning systems. The big question I have is: Does this mean we can have our $40 million to complete our fucking early warning system so the public can get proper notification—at least 15 seconds worth—before we all slide into the Puget Sound on a wave of liquified mud when The Big One hits? The answer is not really but kinda maybe.
The bill authorizes $83.4 million (and no less than 30 million) to fund an Advanced National Seismic System, so long as states pony up 25 percent of the cost for whatever “assistance is being given.” Of course, appropriators would have to decide to actually spend that money, but now at least they have clear authorization to do so. The NEHRP expired in 2009, and since then appropriators have been funding the system, just not with the clear go-ahead from the rest of Congress.
Harold Tobin, director of Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, which runs the state's early warning system (aka the ShakeAlert system), says NEHRP's reauthorization is "a positive sign for what we hope is future funding to continue so we can complete the ShakeAlert system here in the Pacific Northwest."
Right now, the ShakeAlert system is operational in a limited way. If a significant earthquake were to hit the PNW, seismic sensors buried in the ground throughout the region would transmit a signal to computers at the PNSN, which would generate an alert that would automatically close valves in certain water districts in order to preserve water. If Congress appropriates money to continue funding the system over the next few years, the PNSN will be able to increase the density of the sensors in the ground and increase the speed of the network's signals. They'll also be able to expand the alert system to send warnings out to other critical infrastructure at schools, hospitals, and underground transit.
In terms of getting reliable national emergency notifications on our phones? "There's still a technical piece to be solved by the telecommunications companies about how to generate those messages in a timely way," Tobin said. "That's out of our hands, in the sense that it's their technology systems that need to improve. We're hopeful that will be coming down the line in the course of the next few years."
The problem right now with the "Presidential Alert" system, which is really just FEMA's national emergency alert system, is that we all don't get the alert at the same time.
If the president signs NEHRP, Tobin says, it will "send a signal that seismic monitoring and seismic safety are high priorities for the federal government." But even if the president doesn't sign the bill, Congress could still appropriate the funds anyway. They would just need a little extra encouragement from their constituents.
