01.14.05

Sen. Maria Cantwell Announces Legislation to Upgrade Tsunami Warning System Off Washington Coast

SEATTLE, WA – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today announced she will cosponsor bipartisan legislation to upgrade the nation's tsunami warning system, repairing and expanding the system of monitoring buoys off the coast of Washington state. Cantwell also applauded the new proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which recommends expansion of tsunami monitoring capabilities throughout the Pacific and Caribbean basins, as well as throughout significant portions of the mid-Atlantic.

“The shock of what happened in the Indian Ocean caused all of us to start asking tough questions about what could happen in the state of Washington,” Cantwell said. “The fact that we have tsunami warning buoys that may not be working properly is something that we have to fix immediately. We're going to work with NOAA to make sure that happens as soon as possible. After all, we've got 45,000 people in Washington state that live less than a mile from the Pacific Ocean, and hundreds of thousands of citizens in the Puget Sound area that could also be affected.”

Cantwell is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is working to develop legislation to put in place the upgraded tsunami warning system. This legislation will be guided by NOAA's new proposal, which recommends the establishment of an integrated global tsunami warning system. In addition to upgrading the buoys and equipment off the Northwest coast, the system will allow for monitoring in the Indian Ocean and other areas of the world that are presently without any coverage. Along with NOAA laboratories in Alaska and Hawaii, Seattle's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) is a critical component of our nation's existing tsunami warning system.