Deja vu … again, and again. It seems like every week we see an article about the effects of sea level rise on our coastal environment. An April 15 front-page article about unauthorized (read: illegal) shoring up of beachfront properties was a follow-up to one that ran just a few days’ previous about a homeowner spending $200,000 to illegally move public property (beach sand) adjacent to his houses. Also in the article was another comment from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources about how concerned its is about this sort of thing, yet stopping short of actually doing anything about it.

On May 1, another front-page story provided additional details on recent home sales along this extremely vulnerable stretch of shoreline.

On May 6, Chip Fletcher, University of Hawaii-Manoa’s interim dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, provided clear, science-based answers to very important questions around the best strategies for handling rising seas and threats to coastal communities (“5 Questions With … ,” Star-Advertiser).

At the end of the day — and that day appears to be in the very near future, and already here in some cases — there really is only one thing that can be done: retreat from the shoreline.

I strongly suggest taking a look at the State Sea Level Rise (SLR) Viewer (pacioos.hawaii.edu/shoreline/slr-hawaii/). This is an excellent public-service website and tool that clearly illustrates what we are already seeing happen due to the effects of climate change — primarily sea level rise but also coastal flooding impacts.

Another excellent resource is the December 2017 Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report, which describes the conditions and challenges we are now witnessing, and provides solid recommendations to deal with them.

It is (past) time to stop kicking the can down the road, or sand from the beach in this case, and implement the plan in order to address what needs to be done.

The key here is “implement” — meaning take action. It is easy to see from the SLR Viewer which areas, houses, roads and infrastructure (including cesspools and septic systems) are at risk, when and by how much. Start with those that are at greatest risk first, like the aforementioned properties along Oahu’s Rocky Point beach area, as well as priority areas along the west coasts of Kauai and Maui.

The 2017 sea-level rise report outlines a variety of viable recommendations on how to proceed — one of which was just passed into law, Senate Bill 474, to “require mandatory disclosure for vulnerable properties and consider acquisition to protect valuable coastal resources.” While great to see, its enactment came 52 months after the report’s recommendation and 15 months after introduction of the Senate bill.

Obviously, we need to speed things.

The counties and state should create a fund now to carry out what will be a very long-term strategy. Yes, this will mean additional taxes and/or a realignment of state and county funding priorities. The how, and how much, will surely be opined by many people. Regardless, homeowners should not be expected to take the full brunt and pain of the retreat strategy; the counties and state need to do their part, too.

In terms of property acquisition, maybe it is something like the counties paying in 25% of an affected property’s appraised value, the state 65%, and property owners absorbing the remaining 10%. The funds would go into a sea-level rise fund, to be used for efforts such as building demolition, shoreline rehabilitation and long-term conservation.

Nobody said, or will say, it is going to be easy. Far from it; it is going to be really, really hard. However, the longer we wait, the harder — and more expensive — it is going to get for all of us.

Kevin Butterbaugh has 33 years of experience in resource and conservation planning, urban and regional planning, and sea-level rise vulnerability studies.