Groundwater Rise and Infrastructure Preparedness Act of 2025

This act prepares coastal communities for rising groundwater linked to sea level rise. It notes that sea level has already gone up 5–6 inches in 30 years and could rise another 8–15 inches by 2050. Rising groundwater can flood streets and basements, weaken building foundations and pipes, harm drinking water, damage sewers, and stir up buried pollution—yet there hasn’t been a national review of these risks.

It directs the U.S. Geological Survey to make maps showing how shallow groundwater along U.S. coasts may rise each decade through 2100, identify high‑risk areas, and post the maps on a public website that planners and emergency managers can use. It authorizes $5 million for 2025–2026 to set up this mapping program. It also calls for a two‑phase study with the National Academies: first on threats to infrastructure like roads, buildings, utility lines, sewers, water pipes, and storm drains (including earthquake liquefaction risks), and then on public health issues such as mobilized contamination and threats to drinking water and farm areas from saltwater pushing into freshwater. A report to Congress is due within three years after the study begins.

Key points

• Who is affected: Coastal communities; local planners and emergency managers; people and businesses relying on roads, buildings, pipes, and sewers; families using local drinking water; and coastal farmers .
• What changes: National groundwater‑rise maps and a public website; identification of priority flood‑risk areas; research recommendations; and a two‑phase study on infrastructure and health impacts, with a final report to Congress .
• When: Mapping program set up within 18 months of enactment; the study starts within six months after mapping is finished and the report is due within three years of starting the study; funding authorized for 2025–2026; projections shown by decade through 2100 .