Trump budget would cut quake warning system

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump’s budget would eliminate federal funding for an earthquake early warning system being developed for California and the rest of the West Coast, which if enacted would likely kill the long-planned effort.

The budget proposal for the year ending in September 2018 also seeks to eliminate U.S. funding for critical tsunamimonitoring stations in oceans and reduce funds for a next-generation weather forecasting system.

Scientists said the loss of federal funding would derail the early warning system, which officials hope would one day send public earthquake alerts to smartphones seconds or even minutes before a temblor.

“It probably would kill the early warning system if we thought there were no more funding coming from the U.S. Geological Survey,” said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and a seismology professor at the University of Washington.

“The money we’ve received is essential,” he said.

In a statement announcing the USGS budget, the Department of the Interior said the budget “focuses on core USGS science and efficiency,” and asserted that the budget would be able to fund monitoring of the nation’s earthquakes. But the budget document posted on the U.S. Department of Interior’s website did not elaborate on the reason for cutting the alert system.