THERE IS STILL NO BLUEPRINT for a shovel-ready plan, but there is a new feasibility study for flood protections in San Rafael. With the fastest long-term alternative projected to take 10 to 15 years to complete, the study leads with a list of immediate actions that can temporarily buy time.

The “Community Informed Technical Feasibility Study” released Monday analyzes three infrastructural designs that would protect the city from flooding caused by sea level rise for the next 45 to 75 years – build barrier walls, insert a flood gate in the Canal, or raise the land with new buildings and parks at the water’s edge. Similar recommendations have appeared in feasibility studies going back to the 1980s, but this time the “city with a mission” is under pressure from a state deadline. 

Continue reading for free

Sign in to read this story and receive the weekly roundup in your inbox.

Or

Terms & Conditions

Success! Your account was created and you’re signed in.
Please visit My Account to manage your account.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.