Returning resident laments rising seas fueled by climate change

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — New York Times Climate News, which is a subscriber- only newsletter, featured American Samoa as one of its examples in the Thursday edition where it talked about a group of federal programs aimed at helping America’s work force adapt to climate change.

The reporters interviewed Alexsandra Sesepasara who had moved home to American Samoa with her family after more than a decade of military service. She took a job as a water resources engineer for the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) the utility that provides power, cleans up trash and manages drinking water for the residents of the territory.

She told reporters that soon after she arrived, she realized that rising seas and worsening storms, fueled by climate change, had brought new problems to her homeland, while exacerbating old ones. Saltwater was seeping into the islands’ fresh water supply, shutting down schools and leading to boil water notices. In December, the issue caused the hospital to close all nonessential services for nearly a week.

“There was another problem,” Sesepasara said: “American Samoa didn’t have enough workers to fix its water issues.”

ASPA, her employer, is one of the nine entities across the country to receive funding under a $60 million federal program intended to help train workers to combat the growing challenges of climate change.

“This is a model of us adapting our jobs in real time to the reality and need of the moment,” said Ned Gardiner, a program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office, which is coordinating technical assistance for the grantees.

The funding comes as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included hundreds of billions in tax incentives for clean energy and climate programs across the country.

American Samoa will receive almost $1.8 million over the next four years to hire an on-island trainer to provide technical certifications for 150 current and future utility employees out of its 439-person work force. Sesepasara hoped the money could help the company better support its customers.

“If you don’t have water, you don’t have a future,” said Kelley Tagarino, an American Samoa resident and a community adviser at the Hawaii Sea Grant program, which is run through the University of Hawaii. Tagarino works to help her community understand the impact of sea level rise and collaborated with Sesepasara to apply for the grant.

The NYT reported “The tax incentives in the I.R.A. could ultimately help fund more than 6,200 projects in utility-scale clean energy and storage and almost four million jobs, according to the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, a labor organization educating workers on climate action.”

According to The Times, NOAA’s work force program isn’t the only funding for jobs included in the I.R.A. Hundreds of millions of dollars are also available to hire employees in the National Park Service and workers to expedite clean energy projects in rural America.