The head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s New England region is in Rhode Island Wednesday. Curt Spalding will survey parts of the state, to see which are at risk to storms and increased sea level rise.
For two days, the EPA’s Curt Spalding will tour areas in Westerly, South Kingstown, North Kingstown and Warwick. The idea behind the tour is twofold: to examine at-risk areas, and share ideas and existing tools for how to plan for rising seas and more violent storms.
Since 1930, sea level rise has increased in Rhode Island by an average of 1 inch per decade, making the state’s more than 400 miles of shoreline particularly vulnerable. The rate of sea level rise in the Northeast is increasing three to four times faster than the global average.
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