EDITORIAL: Cutting early warning quake system makes little sense

Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)

June 12--Politics sometimes gets personal, but there's no telling if President Donald Trump was thinking of the majority of people who didn't vote for him in the West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington when he made a recent budget decision affecting earthquake warnings.

Whatever the reason -- the administration didn't explain -- when the proposed federal budget from the Trump administration eliminated ongoing funding for ShakeAlert, a cost-efficient early-warning system that would provide up to a minute of crucial time for those of us who live in earthquake-prone regions to prepare for a major quake, it did so at our peril.

According to the U.S. Geological Service, "the purpose of the ShakeAlert system is to identify and characterize an earthquake a few seconds after it begins, calculate the likely intensity of ground shaking that will result, and deliver warnings to people and infrastructure in harm's way."

Seismologist Lucy Jones, at Caltech in Pasadena, said ShakeAlert could make a huge difference in lives saved during an earthquake. For Instance, using the early warning system, train conductors could be alerted to stop, preventing them from derailing. Or, utility companies could control power grids to prevent blackouts. Building managers could direct elevators to the nearest floor to evacuate people to safety. Surgeries could be stopped before the shaking starts.

These are but a few of the practical applications for the program.

In a massive federal budget, we're not talking about a lot of money here. So far, the federal budget has invested $23 million in ShakeAlert. The system, created by scientists at Caltech, UC Berkeley and the universities of Oregon and Washington, had been on track to start operating by the end of 2018, at a total cost of $38.3 million. It would cost $16.1 million a year to operate.

In a budget that run north of $4 trillion, that amount is virtual budget dust. But It Is vital money that can save many lives.

Jones says the cuts would kill the program: "Eliminating the $10 million (a) year that the government has been spending would stop the program and waste the $23 million that has already been invested."

The White House has given no explanation for eliminating the funding. Appearing with Jones at Caltech, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, said that "we cannot stop now, just as monitoring stations are being built out and the system is expanding its reach," he said.

We agree, and urge Congress to restore ShakeAlert funding as it works to craft its budget. WE are all for sensible cuts, but cuts such as this fit the classic definition of the circumstance of being pennywise and pound foolish.

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