Editor,
I have to applaud the city of San Mateo for looking to the future and seeking a way to pre-empt rising FEMA flood insurance costs by adding an assessment to homeowner tax liabilities to cover the cost of levee improvements to hold off the waters of a rising Bay (“San Mateo seeks new protections from floods” in the Sept. 5 edition of the Daily Journal).
At the same time, I have to note that such a plan is anchored in the short term, intended to address today’s insurance premiums rather than the fact that most our Bayland development is bedded in what once was, and soon will again be tidal mudflats.
In the short term, for example, 50 years, this may suffice. Beyond that, the future owners of these low-lying properties will be on their own. And the concept of FEMA flood insurance will be but a memory.
Much as we would like to think otherwise, sea level rise is not going to stop at the top of any existing or yet-to-be built levee.
Long-range planning has got to think farther ahead. Much farther.
David Hirzel
Pacifica
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