The City of Benicia is taking proactive measures to combat sea level rise, following recommendations by the state.

(This article was originally published in the Feb. 23 print edition of the Herald)

Galen Kusic, Editor

The Benicia City Council unanimously approved a contract with Cullen-Sherry & Associates, Inc. for engineering services to design the West H and I Street Shoreline Stabilization at the Feb. 18 meeting.

The improvements are designed to prevent erosion and protect the city from sea level rise. While the exact scope of the project is currently unknown, the engineering firm will do a study and see if a sewer line actually needs to be moved or just protected in its current state in compliance with the state’s projections.

Public Works Deputy Director Kyle Ochenduszko explained that while the City does not have exact plans as to how this will be implemented, they have reached out to Cullen-Sherry & Associates to ask “for assistance on the design analysis.”

After more analysis has been done, the City will have an opportunity to decide what the best option forward will be.

“Sea level rise is projected to happen twice as fast as the original estimates,” said Councilmember Steve Young. “Eventually mother nature is going to win.”

Young asked if the City is anticipating even faster rising waters in the years ahead, or just relying on the state’s guidance from a 2018 report.

Ochenduszko recognized that often times sea level rise estimates “turn into a battle of models.” He noted that the City is currently following the state’s recommendations from 2018.

“This is the guidance we should be looking at,” he said.

While he recognized that this is currently the best model available through scientific research and academia, he also noted that the City is looking toward the future to plan and protect Benicia from inevitable rising seas as new data becomes available.

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