NOAA defends new center site
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
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A new study shows only a small risk of destructive tsunami flooding at Pearl Harbor, but a group that has raised concerns about a new $240 million NOAA regional center there remains skeptical.
The study by NOAA's Center for Tsunami Research comes days before Monday's groundbreaking for the agency's Pacific Regional Center at Ford Island.
"The study validates historic and anecdotal records which show no evidence of destructive tsunamis in Pearl Harbor from distant sources," said Eddie Bernard, director of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environment Lab, which operates the lab.
But Jeff Ruch, executive director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, questioned the results and timing of the study, and said that other concerns raised had not been addressed.
The new facility will incorporate two restored World War II hangars that will be connected by an up-to-date facility, officials with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration said. It would consolidate more than a dozen NOAA agencies now scattered from 'Ewa Beach to Hawai'i Kai.
The center would house about 500 employees. Completion is expected in 2010.
NOAA's ship operations are also moving from Snug Harbor.
The new facility has been criticized by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national environmental advocacy group composed of federal employees.
The group, which said its membership includes NOAA employees locally, lists among its concerns:
The study released yesterday addressed the third point and concludes the tsunami risk is low.
"The models indicate that the greatest rise in water levels at Ford Island would be less than 5 feet above mean high water level," Bernard said in a release. "The NOAA building site is located at 10 feet above mean high water level."
Scientists created a database using 804 tsunami sources from 15 subduction zones in the Pacific.
Ruch, however, was not satisfied after a glance at the study yesterday.
"They only looked at certain types of tsunamis, which are distant ones," Ruch said. "They're not looking at any events near Hawai'i, and they explicitly excluded looking at the data from the tsunamis which hit Hawai'i in 1946, 1952, 1957, 1960 and 1964."
The models that were created, Ruch said, "appeared to be the well-behaved tsunamis that produced the results that they cited."
Ruch also questioned timing of the release and the fact that NOAA itself conducted the study "without any chance for outside public review or comment."
Delores Clark, a local NOAA spokeswoman, said responses to PEER's other concerns are contained in a "finding of no significant impact" report that is to be published in the Federal Registry in the coming weeks. An environmental assessment already has been conducted.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
