“There’s no valid reason not to make this relatively small investment in an early warning system that has the potential to save the lives of Californians,” state Sen. (D-San Mateo) said in a statement. “I urge my colleagues and the governor to join us in fulfilling our primary responsibility of protecting the public.”
Added state Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), a former speaker of the state Assembly, in the statement: “It’s crucial that we fund a statewide earthquake early warning system and get it in place right away.”
The voices of support that emerged Friday for the warning system mark a change in tone at the State Capitol, where there had been few outspoken supporters of the system in recent years. On Wednesday, H.D. Palmer, deputy director for the Department of Finance, said that California’s policy is to not use money from the general fund for the early warning system.
But it was becoming increasingly unclear when the public could expect to see the earthquake early warning system on their cellphones, computers and televisions, with no solution in sight for full funding.
The total cost of building the system across the West Coast is $38 million, plus $16 million a year to operate it. For California alone, the cost is $23 million to construct the network, and $12 million annually to maintain it.
Congress and President Obama have already kicked in about half of the $16-million annual cost to operate the program, but federal elected officials have said California, Oregon and Washington ought to contribute substantial amounts of money for the network.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) hailed the interest of state lawmakers in the system Friday.
“I’m thrilled…I’m really encouraged by what’s happening,” Schiff said in a telephone interview Friday. “It was all the more apparent this week that we need the full buy-in by the state of California, and now we have some very influential lawmakers who are making earthquake preparedness and the early warning system one of their real priorities. I think we're really gaining traction now, and it's great news for California.”
The U.S. Geological Survey’s earthquake early warning system was given the spotlight Tuesday at a summit held by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. The summit gave high-profile backing to the early warning system, and speakers urged policymakers to find a way for the system to be completed.
The prototype early warning system has already shown promising results in its test phase – giving 30 seconds of warning to downtown L.A. before the ground shook from a magnitude-4.4 earthquake centered in Banning last month. In 2014, the system handed researchers in San Francisco eight seconds of notice before the shaking arrived from a magnitude-6.0 earthquake that began in Napa.
But the system doesn’t yet have enough seismic sensor stations – 1,000 more need to be built or upgraded across the West Coast, added to the existing network of 650 facilities, which have been largely focused on the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.
The blind spots are important to fill. A lack of sensors in the northern reaches of California means that San Francisco could receive delayed warnings if an earthquake started near Cape Mendocino and barreled south to the Bay Area.
Other countries have developed earthquake early warning systems after devastating quakes killed thousands of people. Mexico City has had a system since 1991, built after a 1985 earthquake killed at least 9,500 people.
Japan built a nationwide early warning system after 1995 Kobe earthquake killed more than 5,000 people. When the magnitude 9 earthquake hit east of Japan in 2011, many people in Tokyo, 200 miles away from the epicenter, had 30 seconds of warning that the shaking was coming.
The warnings would allow elevators to automatically open at the next floor before shaking arrives, tell surgeons to halt surgery, and slow down trains to decrease the risk of derailment. In Japan, one factory has figured out a way to secure noxious chemicals between the time a quake warning is issued and when the actual shaking arrives.
The early warning system works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at about the speed of sound through rock — slower than the speed of today's telecommunications systems. That means it would take more than a minute for, say, a 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea to shake up Los Angeles 150 miles away.
The two senators, Hill and Hertzberg, and Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) said they want to repeal a current state law that prohibits the use of state general fund dollars to fund an earthquake early warning system. They’re also proposing $23 million to install earthquake sensor stations and upgrade telecommunications networks to get the system up and running in this state. The proposal, however, does not address ongoing operational costs.
“We will have conversations with project stakeholders about how to maintain the system’s operability and long-term financing,” Hill and Gray said in a statement.
They added that the state legislative analyst recently predicted that California will end the next budget year with a reserve of $11.5 billion.
“We should use a small fraction of that money to make a smart, one-time investment in a system that can improve public safety and save lives,” the lawmakers said. “We share Gov. Brown’s commitment to fiscal restraint. However, to not invest a small fraction of the overall state budget to implement the earthquake early warning system would be fiscally irresponsible.”
Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Sherman Oaks) said he wanted secure funding to both build the early warning system and operate it through the budget process.
During budget negotiations, Nazarian also planned to re-introduce the idea that the state should give owners a tax credit for earthquake retrofits; for instance, for every $100 spent on a qualified retrofit, a taxpayer would receive a $30 break on income or corporate taxes over a period of five years after the retrofit is completed.
Nazarian introduced the idea as a bill in the last legislative session; it passed the Legislature and was vetoed by Brown.
“Every second matters in an earthquake,” Nazarian said in a statement. “Let’s get this done.”
©2016 the Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.