Caltech Figures Prominently in Earthquake Early Warning Legislation

The California Assembly’s Governmental Organization Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would rely upon Caltech and UC Berkeley for a statewide early warning earthquake system.

State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, authored the bill that would task several institutions including Caltech, UC Berkeley, the California Geological Survey, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Office of Emergency Services to develop the proposed warning system.

“We all know a big quake will hit again in the future,” Padilla said in a press release. “We should be smart and use our science and technology to detect seismic activity and alert people in advance of destructive shaking.”

Padilla told the Pasadena Star-News he is yet to come up with a concrete budget source for the $80-million construction and operation cost of the proposed system for a period of five years.

“Budgets are tight, so the big question is where that funding is going to come from,” Doug Given, the coordinator of the earthquake early warning system, told the newspaper. “The original hope was that it would be federal funding.”

Padilla proposed the bill after a meeting with Caltech and US Berkeley scientists. Caltech is developing an earthquake early warning system and is beta testing the system.

“We’re working on some social sciences to figure out how to maximize the effectiveness of the warnings when they do go out to the public,” Given told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Coachella Valley Regional Earthquake Warning System (CREWS) is set to implement in the Southland the country’s first emergency earthquake warning system through the funding assistance of Seismic Warning Systems, Inc., the Star-News reported.

Crews’ system, which is expected to be implemented in 12 to 18 months from now, will be be using sensors to detect a nearby earthquake in the region and would warn residents and businesses of when the earthquake will be felt in their area.