Lewes filmmaker warns of threat from rising sea level in new documentary 'Tidewater'

Correction: The article has been updated to correct Christopher Sommerfield's title. He is a professor of of oceanography at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment.

At high tide on a clear day, you can forget about cruising down certain Lewes back roads, Janice Pinto said.

“It’s impassible,” she said. “It might be a beautiful sunny day, but because high tides are higher than they used to be, it’s impassible.”

Pinto, a retired schoolteacher from the Philadelphia suburbs, has lived in Lewes for the past 10 years. Within that time, she said, flooding has become an increasingly bigger problem for her and her neighbors.

“On New Road, even if the wind’s not blowing, at high tide, there’s a real good chance you won’t be able to get up and down Canary Creek, which New Road crosses over,” she said. 

For Lewes-based filmmaker Judy Rolfe, Pinto’s story is symptomatic of a greater issue facing cities along the East Coast — sea level rise.

“Any coastal city needs to be thinking about preparedness, mitigation and adaption,” said Rolfe, who is originally from Ocean City, Maryland. 

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According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, global sea level has risen over the past century, and the rate is increasing.

In 2014, the sea level was 2.6 inches above the 1993 average — the highest annual average in the satellite record, according to a study done by NOAA.

Sea level continues to rise at a rate of nearly one-eighth of an inch per year, the agency says.

Throughout most of 2016, Rolfe worked as an assistant producer for “Tidewater” — a documentary that centers on the southeastern region of Virginia and northeastern region of North Carolina, known as Hampton Roads.

The documentary claims nearly 900 miles of the area’s roads and electric grid are threatened by permanent flooding, as a result of sea level rise.

Hampton Roads also houses a large shipping port and the world’s largest naval base, in addition to several Air Force, Army, Coast Guard and Marine facilities. The coastal region is low, flat and full of marshes.

“Tidewater” argues that sea level rise is not only a threat to those living in the Hampton Roads cities of Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, it is a threat to national security.

Rolfe will premiere “Tidewater” on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at the Cinema Art Theater in Lewes, and will feature Christopher Sommerfield, a professor of oceanography at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment and DNREC’s Danielle Swallow in a panel discussion.

In the documentary, residents similar to Pinto are shown trying to interact with the shifting landscape, wading and driving through standing water near Hampton Roads.

While working on the film, Rolfe said she found there were undeniable parallels between the threats facing Hampton Roads and potential threats facing coastal Delaware.

“Even though we’re three hours north of Hampton Roads, Virginia, what’s happening there is relevant to our region as well,” she said.

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But for Gene Donaldson, a Transportation Management Center operations manager at DelDOT, flooding has always been a consistent issue for Delaware roads and infrastructure. Donaldson said he hasn't noticed any increase in flooding.

“Flooding is a big issue to us, as a department, because of the possibility of it occurring here,” he said. “We’re a water state — we’re low in elevation. The rivers, the streams, the bays and the Delaware Bay and the ocean can adversely impact the transportation system.”

Donaldson said recent events, like the closing of the Indian River Inlet Bridge during last month’s small brush with Hurricane Jose, are not an indication that sea level rise is a growing threat.

“They’re to me just random events right now, tied to other events — from a lot of rain to wind,” he said.

Still, Donaldson said he and DelDOT are actively measuring and monitoring the impact of water on Delaware’s roads and infrastructure.

Lewes City Manager Ann Marie Townshend said she is also keeping a close watch on the water. 

"Sea level rise is something that we do have concerns about," she said. 

Townshend said although she has not noticed the sunny day flooding that Pinto reportedly saw, she has worked in Lewes since April and sees this as a growing issue. 

"With king tide — when you have a full moon and high tide, with sea level rise and climate change issues, there has been more flooding with those types of events today than there were 20 years ago," she said. 

To Sommerfield, the UD professor, the comparison between Hampton Roads and the Delaware Coast is clear.

“We share the same parts of the ocean and the way that the water responds to winds, sea level change, temperature and so forth are very much the same,” he said.

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One focal point of Sommerfield’s research is how shorelines and wetlands respond to sea level rise.

In 2013, Sommerfield met with senators at a roundtable discussion on ideas for addressing ocean issues, such as rising sea levels.

“There’s consensus among scientists, managers and even politicians in the state of Delaware that sea level rise is a concern,” Sommerfield said.

In a 2016 progress report called “Climate Action in Delaware,” DNREC states that as a low-lying state with more than 380 miles of shoreline, Delaware is vulnerable to coastal storms, sea level rise and flooding worsened by climate change.

“Sea levels around Delaware have already risen more than a foot in this century,” the report says.

Unlike DNREC, “Tidewater” makes a deliberate decision to not use the words “climate change,” “global warming” or "carbon."

“I have found personally, in my filmmaking, as soon as you mention climate change, it changes the conversation,” Rolfe said, referring to the politics closely tied to environmental discussions.

Rolfe said one of her favorite lines in the documentary says, “Water is water. It doesn’t matter what your politics are — it’s still coming up in our backyard and in our basement.”

For Sommerfield, this is why an emphasis on science is necessary in these discussions.

“In Delaware, we live on a landscape that happens to be sinking or subsiding,” he said.

The land has been moving down at a rate of about 1-2 millimeters per year, according to Sommerfield.  

He said this is where the comparison between Hampton Roads and Delaware became even more apparent.

“We do have a wide range of infrastructure and natural resources that would be impacted or vulnerable to sea level rise,” he said.  

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If you go:

"Tidewater" Delaware premier 

7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 17 

The Rehoboth Beach Film Society's Cinema Art Theater: 17701 Dartmouth Drive, No. 2 Dartmouth Plaza, Lewes

Admission: $6