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Technology Needs to be Funded to Prevent Another Oso, Wash., Landslide

The need for expanding lidar data-collection, interpretation and outreach efforts was one of the top recommendations of the commission that studied the public-policy implications of the deadly slide.

Washington Air National Guardsmen
Washington Air National Guardsmen methodically make their way through the mud and wreckage left behind by the March 22, 2014, mudslide in Oso, Wash. (Photo by Spc. Matthew Sissel/122D PAOC)
(TNS) — In the aftermath of last year’s lethal Oso landslide, the state Legislature has unanimously authorized an expanded state program to map slide-prone slopes and other geologic hazards. Equally important, the state would make that information more accessible to policymakers and the public.

But that laudable move won’t mean much unless lawmakers take the next step and pony up the money to pay for the program.

The funds would pay for increased risk identification and analysis using lidar, an aerial scanning technique that can reveal previously hidden geologic hazards. So far, it has been used to map less than a quarter of the state.

The need for expanding lidar data-collection, interpretation and outreach efforts was one of the top recommendations of the commission appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee and Snohomish County Executive John Lovick last year. Its task was to study public-policy implications of the Oso slide, which killed 43 people.

State Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark has asked legislators for $6.6 million for the beefed-up lidar program, which would be housed in his Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Democratic-controlled state House’s budget provides $4.6 million; the Republican-controlled Senate’s version provides nary a penny.

But Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond, the Senate’s chief budget writer, has indicated that was an oversight and that the Senate will go along with the House’s number.

That’s good news. This state has witnessed more than its share of the earth’s destructive power in recent years — Mount St. Helens in 1980, the Nisqually earthquake in 2001 and Oso last year. Yet, Washington ranks 34th among the states in what it spends to identify and assess geologic hazards, according to the DNR.

Lidar won’t in itself make people or property safer from geologic disasters. It is only a tool. Planners and politicians still must balance the geologic risks the new technology reveals against property rights, development pressures and other powerful forces.

But better data increase the odds they will make the right call.

©2015 The Seattle Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
 

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