Adapting to Sea Level Rise: Impacts on Contaminated Sites around the SF Bay

As sea level rises, shallow coastal groundwater will also rise and can mobilize contaminants that were left behind in the soil at former military bases, industrial sites, and commercial properties. In higher groundwater conditions, these harmful chemicals can migrate in ways that expose people and Bay ecosystems to new health risks. This project is building a single map of contaminated sites managed by different government agencies, and then overlaying those data onto maps of rising groundwater and social vulnerability to establish the scope of this emerging health and environmental risk. Next, we will work with communities to inventory the chemicals involved and help to identify strategies for urban neighborhoods that have many such sites, often as a result of a history of environmental injustice and systemic racism.