Trump pulls plug on study to prepare coastline for flooding

A study exploring potential projects to address storm-related threats to Baltimore's coastline is among those the Trump administration has denied funding, prompting organizers to announce they are suspending the research effort.

The Army Corps of Engineers and Maryland Department of Transportation launched the $3 million study last year, seeking to investigate what could be done to prevent deaths and damage from storms, possibly including sea walls or levees and elevation of buildings in flood-prone areas such as Fells Point. It would have explored the new risks future storms could pose as sea levels rise and climate changes.

But the Army Corps said the Baltimore project - and many others like it around the country - was not funded in the agency's work plan for the current fiscal year, nor was it included in the administration's budget proposal for fiscal 2021.

The agency also suspended a similar study for New York City that President Donald Trump criticized on Twitter in January, calling the suggestion of a sea wall there "costly, foolish and environmentally unfriendly."

David McMillan, director of Baltimore's Office of Emergency Management, said he was disappointed to learn of the decision, calling the research "very important" in evaluating the city's coastal flooding risk and exploring options to address it. He said he hopes Congress will step in to fund the Army Corps beyond the administration's proposal for the coming fiscal year.

The next chance for the project to be funded would come around this time next year, when the agency gets its next annual work plan.

"If we do receive funding at that time, we hope to be able to resume the study with minimal delay," Army Corps officials said.

The study was focused on the "economic damages and life safety concerns" that tropical storms, hurricanes and "nor'easter" storms could pose along Baltimore's coastline, and also at Martin State Airport in eastern Baltimore County. A draft report on its findings was expected in September, with a final report due to Congress in August 2022.

Maryland transportation officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Study materials noted that flooding causes $2.2 million in damages each year, on average, in Baltimore. Hurricane Isabel inundated waterfront neighborhoods with as much as 8 feet of water in 2003, and sea levels are estimated to rise more than 5 feet by 2100, the materials said.

Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said the administration's decision could put lives at risk. He predicted that if the study were to go forward, it would "show there is undoubtedly a need for greater public investments to deal with the problem of global warming, which the president ridiculously denies."

Caption: Heavy storms cause flooding on Aliceanna Street between Fells Point and Harbor East in 2018. A study of potential projects to address storm-related flooding has lost its funding.

Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun