The Senate passed a bill Thursday that would set up a 24-hour-a-day volcano early warning system to give population centers a heads-up of impending eruptions such as the current ones in Hawaii.
“Volcanic eruptions, like the one in Hawaii and the one earlier this month at Cleveland Volcano in Alaska, are vivid reminders of why it is so critical to have continuous and reliable monitoring systems,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Murkowski said she hopes the House sees the need for the early warning system and “will move quickly to approve this timely legislation.” The bill, which passed by unanimous voice vote, helps to ensure the U.S. Geological Survey has the resources to bolster the nation’s volcano monitoring, warning, and response capabilities.
Murkowski and Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee, with Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, led the charge to pass the legislation Thursday.
“This bill connects needed volcano monitoring systems in the Pacific Ring of Fire,” Cantwell said after it passed. “Washingtonians remember the impact the Mt. St. Helens eruption had on our communities 38 years ago.”
Washington state has five volcanoes with the highest threat levels in the nation, “and as we’re seeing in Hawaii right now, these volcanoes are a persistent and serious threat,” she said.
The bill seeks to connect volcano observatories from Alaska to Hawaii into a unified connected system called the National Volcano Early Warning System.
The bill also creates a new Volcano Watch Office, which would operate around the clock to provide continuous “situational awareness” of all active volcanoes in the U.S. and its territories, including the ongoing eruption of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii.
