A Bay Space lawmaker is pushing for brand new federal laws to review the menace rising groundwater poses — a hidden however rising environmental hazard that consultants say might worsen flooding, harm infrastructure, and contaminate ingesting water.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, final month launched the Groundwater Rise and Infrastructure Preparedness Act of 2025, a bipartisan invoice co-authored with Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., that seeks $5 million in preliminary funding to evaluate the dangers rising groundwater poses to public well being and important infrastructure like roads, utilities, and sewer methods. The measure would additionally help the event of long-term mitigation methods.
Mullin held a press convention Tuesday morning in South San Francisco to debate his new laws and the area’s flood and groundwater rise threats with native environmental and authorities leaders.
“As we continue to witness the devastating and deadly impacts of flooding across America, we need to help communities understand their risks so they can better prepare,” Mullin mentioned. “Too many lives, homes, businesses, and vital infrastructure have been upended by extreme flooding. Rising groundwater is a hidden threat that can remain unseen until it’s too late.”
The hassle comes because the Bay Space has skilled extra frequent atmospheric river storms and inches nearer to sea degree rise projections that consultants warn will more and more carry groundwater to the floor in low-lying areas. Mullin mentioned his invoice would fill a crucial hole in understanding the place groundwater rise will trigger probably the most harm — and how you can put together for it.
Information is restricted, however research present the dangers are important. In line with the invoice, groundwater rise can mobilize poisonous chemical compounds buried underground, enhance the prospect of power flooding, weaken the foundations of roads and buildings, and unfold contamination to creeks and ingesting water methods.
“Flooding won’t just damage communities in familiar ways,” Mullin mentioned. “It will carry toxic contamination to places we never expected to find it.”
One of the crucial susceptible areas is the Bay Space, residence to hundreds of contaminated websites, together with former industrial zones and army bases. Amongst them is Bayview-Hunters Level, a former naval shipyard in San Francisco with a protracted historical past of environmental cleanup.
A 2024 report by the San Francisco Bay Space Planning and City Analysis Affiliation (SPUR) discovered that East Palo Alto, a traditionally deprived and majority-minority neighborhood, can be at excessive danger of groundwater-related contamination because of its proximity to poisonous websites and low elevation.
“In the Bay Area, there are over 5,000 toxic sites at risk of sea level and groundwater rise,” mentioned Sarah Atkinson, SPUR’s senior coverage supervisor for hazard resilience. “Rising water can cause contaminant mobilization into sewer systems and creeks. Community leaders are concerned about the resulting public health impacts and are demanding action — and this isn’t just a Bay Area problem.”
Mullin’s invoice focuses on information gathering and planning for now, however he mentioned it might result in extra substantial mitigation applications sooner or later.
“When I ran for Congress, I made it clear that I wanted to work in a bipartisan way,” Mullin mentioned. “By focusing on the economic impacts, community impacts, infrastructure, and public health, I think we all know — everybody here knows — that climate change is real.”
Native flood resilience leaders say this type of information is crucial for smarter planning. Len Materman, CEO of One Shoreline, San Mateo County’s flood and sea degree rise district, mentioned cities and counties ought to be factoring in groundwater circumstances when approving private and non-private development initiatives.
“Local jurisdictions should require an analysis of the soil conditions that accounts for groundwater so that when projects are designed and then ultimately approved, they’re doing it thinking about future conditions — 20 or 30 years from now — with higher groundwater,” Materman mentioned.
One Shoreline is urging native governments to require any such soil evaluation and long-term danger mapping earlier than approving new housing or infrastructure initiatives.
“This study is especially crucial,” Materman mentioned. “It’s a foundational piece of the planning we need to do to keep people safe.”
The urgency has grown following a sequence of lethal floods in the USA. Earlier this month, excessive flooding in central Texas killed no less than 136 individuals and brought about widespread devastation. Whereas the Bay Space doesn’t sometimes expertise floods on that scale, Mullin warned the area isn’t immune.
“We’ve had very major rain events in the last four years, especially in San Mateo, where there have been deaths,” Materman added. “Although it hasn’t reached the scale of Texas, it could. It’s possible.”
Nonetheless, Mullin faces an uphill climb in getting the invoice handed. Funding for local weather resilience applications has confronted repeated cuts in Congress. Beneath President Donald Trump, FEMA and NOAA budgets have been slashed as a part of a broader push to scale back federal spending.
In Might, one other Peninsula lawmaker, Rep. Sam Liccardo, introduced that $50 million in federal Constructing Resilient Infrastructure and Communities funds had been reduce, impacting coastal erosion mitigation efforts in Pacifica.
Mullin mentioned the present local weather in Congress makes it tough to safe funding — however ready isn’t an possibility.
“We may have a more friendly Congress in a couple of years, but we’re not waiting,” Mullin mentioned. “We’re going to keep going on this because we can’t afford to wait.”
He emphasised that the chance groundwater rise poses impacts all the nation — not simply the coasts.
“Rising groundwater doesn’t care if a state is red or blue,” Mullin mentioned. “It’s a national problem that requires a national response.”
Initially Revealed: July 29, 2025 at 4:14 PM PDT
