State to Fund Earthquake Map System

Gov. Gray Davis has decided to use state money to fund the Trinet system of hundreds of seismic monitoring stations in Southern California, an administration official said Monday. The state money will replace federal grants that expire at the end of this year.

Davis is expected to announce Wednesday that he is putting $6.8 million into the proposed state budget, including $2.9 million to maintain the Southland system, and $3.9 million more for the first year of a five-year program to expand it statewide, the official said.

The system, founded in 1997, mainly with a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will include 670 stations when it is completed at the end of the year.

The stations, already largely functioning, give the location and magnitude of significant quakes within minutes throughout the Southland. The system also provides shake maps showing where there may be significant damage.

At Caltech, seismologist Egill Hauksson, an originator of the system, hailed Davis’ decision as “great news.”

“This will allow us to fully implement and maintain real-time statewide earthquake monitoring and information, providing emergency management tools for the State Office of Emergency Services, Caltrans and more than 1,000 emergency managers in both state and local governments, as well as the private sector,” Hauksson said.

Dallas Jones, director of the Office of Emergency Services, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had urged Davis to authorize use of the state money when they learned last year that the system could be jeopardized by the end of federal funding.

As late as the disastrous Loma Prieta and Northridge quakes of 1989 and 1994, authorities frequently were at sea for hours over where shaking was most intense. This impeded rescue efforts.

Trinet shake maps are now available in as little as 15 minutes. As the system expands statewide, there will be few areas beyond the immediate assessments of state rescue agencies.