Aware of the risk. We are studying and adapting to these risks to identify, prioritize, and develop Effective Solutions to future vulnerabilities. Thankthank you very much. Thank you, admiral. Members of the committee. Congressman thank you for what you do. Distinguished colleagues on the panel and in the audience thank you. I speak today for the over 200,000 members of the Chesapeake Bay foundation, board, staff. Chesapeake bay is Getting Better but it is still a system dangerously out of balance. I use the word system because science has taught us to realize that the chesapeake is a collection of all the rivers and streams which feed into it. Of course the main stem. Fortunately theyre is a plan in place to restore the chesapeake and all the rivers and streams. It is called the chesapeake clean water blueprint or the mother of all t mdl. It is a heavy left. And Global Climate change will add to the burden. We are seeing the impact now right before our eyes. Chesapeake Bay Foundation
The wake of Tropical Storm isabel. In 2003 isabel caused widespread flooding and equipment damage throughout the yard. The total cost of that for repair was 120 million. Weve taken several measures to ensure a similar event will not have the same detrimental impact. Weve raised the ground floor elevations of new construction. For example, wesley brownfieldhouse was built above the flood level and acts as a flood wall. We reelected the chiller plant and moved the hvac equipment to rooftops where feasible. We have raised electrical outlet on ground floors and installed check valves on ubd ground tunnels and storm lines. Where suitable weve identified opportunities for quote wet, flood proofing unquote where we designated billings and fields that will be allowed to flood once in a 100 years. They can handle flooding with minimal damage and using costs to keep them dry would not be Cost Effective. And we have protocol for equipment relocation in classrooms and labs in the event of a major
Chesapeake Bay Foundation has Environmental Education centers on smith island and tangier island. Inhabited islands in the mid bay. Residents of smith and tangier are losing their homes. They are losing their island. Day after day, week after week, losing their home. On a property in the chesapeake Bay Foundation, in just the last 25 years we have lost an entire pine forest, several dozen acres, several hundred trees to sea level, bay level rise. Ive submitted my testimony, but let me just summarize briefly. The impacts of Climate Change are multiple, but let me tell you about three for Chesapeake Bay. Warmer waters have a decreased capacity to hold dissolved oxygen exacerbating the bays dead zone. Temperaturesensitive species like eel grass and many others are really, truly at risk. Second, the bay region is particularly vulnerable to Sea Level Rise exacerbated, exacerbated by land subsidence. Approximately one foot of net Sea Level Rise in the chesapeake over the last 100 years is ro
Strong partnership between labor and management that has driven performance significantly where they are producing the work they are doing on our submarine attack fleet on schedule, under budget. A takeaway from the hearing some of the best practices being put in place that we need a better mechanism to share those among the shipyards to ensure that we can learn from each other to make sure that that Strong Partnership is there for excellent performance between labor and management and i know that the naval Systems Command in Partnership Forum is an important start in that effort but there can be more done based on the hearing we had yesterday. I wanted to ask about your commitment to make sure we institutionalize best practices among our work forces and relationships between labor and management among all the four shipyards. Admiral richardson they are a Magnificent Team in portsmouth and our public yards are strategic tools. Even in my current job as director of naval reactors, very
Shipbuilding plan. Are you concerned with that and what more do we need to do, what can congress do to help you overcome that ship shortfall . Senator this is an area where navy and marine corps have been discussing and again have realized together although the requirement, the military requirement is 38, the current fiscal environment is going to drive us to 34. I appreciate the assistance of congress to getting us to 34 to address those that gap between the requirement and what we can resource, were looking at augmenting our lift there with other platforms besides gray hulls. Gray hulls are absolutely the requirement thats needed for the high end threat but there may be applications and opportunities to lift marines using other platforms. Thank you and again i want to tell you, i look forward to you, your confirmation. I wholeheartedly support it. I would ask some questions about concerns in the arctic, but i have a feeling that my colleague here is going to do a better job of that t