NJ Sea Levels Could Rise 1 Foot By 2050: Report

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey shoreline could see sea levels rise as much as a foot in the next 30 years — as much as they did in the entire 20th century, a new government report warns.

By 2050, seas lapping against U.S. shores will be 10 to 12 inches higher, according to a 111-page report issued Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and six other federal agencies.

Major East Coast cities will be hit regularly with costly floods even on sunny days as sea levels rise. In other parts of the country, states such as Louisiana and Texas are projected to see waters a foot and a half higher.

"Make no mistake: Sea level rise is upon us," said Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

Sea level is rising faster along New Jersey shores than the global average mainly due to land subsidence, or sinking, according to a report by Rutgers University. Until the year 1800, sea level on the Jersey shore rose at an average rate of about 0.6 inches per decade.

In more recent years, sea level rise has accelerated.

In the 20th century, sea level rose by 12 inches at locations including Bayonne, Trenton and Camden, according to Rutgers. Along the Jersey shore from Sandy Hook to Cape May, it rose an additional 4 inches.

In fact, New Jersey shore sea levels rose faster in the 20th century than in any century in the last 4,000 years, Rutgers researchers said.

And things aren't slowing down any time soon.

The projected increase in NOAA's report is especially alarming given that in the 20th century, seas along the Atlantic coast rose at the fastest clip in 2,000 years.

Sea levels are projected to rise most on the Gulf and East coasts through 2050, while the West Coast and Hawaii will be hit by amounts less than average.

And that’s just until 2050. NOAA's report is projecting an average of about 2 feet of sea level rise in the United States — more in the East, less in the West — by the end of the century.

The report "is the equivalent of NOAA sending a red flag up" about accelerating the rise in sea levels, University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscientist Andrea Dutton, a specialist in sea level rise, told The Associated Press. The coastal flooding New Jersey and other parts of the United States see now "will get taken to a whole new level in just a couple of decades."

"We can see this freight train coming from more than a mile away," Dutton told The AP in an email. "The question is whether we continue to let houses slide into the ocean."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.