Morning Report.
Today is Wednesday, and Happy Cinco de Mayo! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch.
Alexis Simendinger and
@asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe!
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths as of each morning this week
: Monday, 577,045; Tuesday, 577,523; Wednesday, 578,500.
President Biden on Tuesday updated his months-long effort to encourage Americans to treat July 4 as a kind of COVID-19 liberation opportunity among those who long for baseball and barbecues, parades and patriotism, and something approaching normal life.
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Coastal communities are racing to restore marshes, like these in San Francisco Bay, to create a barrier against storm surges and sea level rise.
(Cris Benton/NPR)
In a hotter climate, dirt is a hot commodity.
With sea levels expected to rise 3 to 6 feet by the end of the century, coastal communities are moving fast to construct major shoreline projects to protect themselves. As the size of these projects expands, the primary building materials dirt and mud are getting scarce.
Dirt (what you dig up on land) and mud or sediment (the wetter variety already in rivers and bays) are the raw materials of climate change adaptation. They re used to build levees, the massive earthen barriers that hold back waves, and to raise elevation so buildings can sit higher than the flood plain.
May 5, 2021
The densely populated coastal regions of New York and New Jersey face serious flood threats as climate change, increased storm frequency and rising sea levels exacerbate vulnerability.
Without action, 2.9 million people and $2.1 trillion in assets in New York City and Newark, NJ, alone are at risk of flooding by 2070.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plays a major role in assessing flood risk and identifying solutions to reduce it. However, to date, the Corps’ approach has not matched the scale and scope of flood threats to communities and vital infrastructure.
In light of last year’s Water Resources Development Act, the Corps must include implementation guidance to pursue a holistic approach in their upcoming New York-New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Study (NYNJHATS).
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), along with U.S. Representatives Sam
Graves (Mo.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (Mo.), led a bipartisan, bicameral letter
urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to quickly and fully utilize
the tools and resources Congress provided in the Water Resources Development
Act (WRDA) of 2020 and the FY2020 Energy and Water appropriations bill to
reduce flood risk and improve flood protection along the Lower Missouri River.
In addition to Blunt, Graves, and
Cleaver, the letter is signed by congressional members from the Lower Missouri River
Basin states, including U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Deb Fischer
The Western Dredging Association (WEDA) has just announced the release of the Journal of Dredging Volume 19 - Issue 2, which provides the dissemination of technical and project information on dredging engineering topics.