Florida is in the crosshairs of climate change. Rising seas, a population crowded along the coast, porous bedrock, and the relatively common occurrence of tropical storms put more real estate and people at risk from storm surges aggravated by sea level rise in Florida, than any other state by far.

Some 2.4 million people and 1.3 million homes, nearly half the risk nationwide, sit within 4 feet of the local high tide line. Sea-level rise is more than doubling the risk of a storm surge at this level in South Florida by 2030. For the hundreds of thousands of Floridians holding 30-year mortgages, that date is not far off in the future.

The world’s oceans are already rising, thanks to global warming. Global average sea level has gone up about eight inches since 1880. In South Florida, taxpayers are already paying the price for climate change as salt water pushes through porous bedrock into coastal drinking-water supplies, and rivers and canals choked by heavy rains have a harder time draining into the ocean. A recent Florida Atlantic University study estimated that just six more inches of sea level rise — very plausible within two decades — would cripple about half of South Florida’s flood control capacity.

It’s now, not later, for sea-level rise in South Florida.

That’s a big reason why Climate Central has worked for two years on a new analysis of this threat, blending storm surge, tides and more into the picture. Integrating storms and tides show that a small amount of sea level rise can make a big difference — multiplying the odds of extreme coastal floods around the United States, not just South Florida. Think of it like raising the floor at a Miami Heat game: you’d see a lot more dunks. Overall, sea-level rise is making the odds of a South Florida flood reaching more than four feet above high tide, by 2050, on par with the odds of losing at Russian roulette.

More than half the population of more than 100 Florida towns and cities lives on land below that four-foot line. Miami-Dade and Broward counties each have more people below four feet than any state, except Florida itself and Louisiana.

Just how vulnerable any area is depends on many elements. Our analysis factored in not only local sea-level rise projections, storm-surge patterns and tides, but also local topography and patterns of development. In an attempt to better inform people, businesses and planners who live and work near the coast, we have mapped and evaluated risk in 3,000 towns, cities and counties across the lower 48 states, including South Florida, and have created a free, ZIP code-searchable map with neighborhood views and risk information at SurgingSeas.org. Among our key national findings:

• Global warming has already doubled or tripled the odds of extreme high water events over widespread areas of the U.S. coast.

• Widespread areas are likely to see storm surges on top of sea level rise reaching at least four feet above high tide by 2030, and five feet by 2050.

• Almost five million U.S. residents currently live on land less than four feet above high tide, and more than six million on land less than five feet above.

Sea-level rise is already increasing flood threats everywhere. It’s set to become an even greater problem much sooner than most people expect. Swift cuts in greenhouse gas pollution can significantly reduce sea level increases, but past and present pollution already commit us to a good deal more rise.

It’s time we start preparing for higher seas and storms, if we want to avoid their worst effects. In South Florida, where the porous limestone makes building effective sea walls or levees almost impossible, the task is especially urgent.

Ben Strauss is director of the Program on Sea Level Rise at Climate Central, a nonprofit research and journalism group.

WASHINGTON -- Floods and water shortages in the next 30 years will make it hard for many countries to keep up with growing demand for fresh water, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the U.S. intelligence community reported Thursday.

Water problems in the next decade will add to instability in countries that are important to U.S. national security, the report said. Floods and shortages also will make it hard for some countries to grow enough food or produce enough energy, creating risk for global food markets and slowing economic growth.

"I think it's fair to say the intelligence community's findings are sobering," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who requested the report last year. "These threats are real and they do raise serious security concerns."

Clinton, speaking at an event to mark World Water Day, announced a new U.S. Water Partnership, made up of private companies, philanthropy and advocacy groups, academics and government. The group will coordinate efforts to solve water problems and make U.S. expertise more accessible.

"We believe this will help map out our route to a more water-secure world," Clinton said.

The intelligence assessment, drafted by the Defense Intelligence Agency with contributions from the CIA and other agencies, was aimed at answering how water problems will affect U.S. national security interests. The classified version, finished in October, named specific countries expected to have water problems, but they weren't identified in the unclassified version. The public version said only that analysts focused on "strategically important countries" along major rivers in the Middle East, Central and South Asia and North Africa.

Some findings:

-Agriculture, which takes 68 percent of the water used by humans, is one of the biggest areas where countries need to find solutions to water problems. Desalination may be economical for household and industrial use, but it isn't currently economical for agriculture.

-Wars over water are unlikely in the next decade. Still, as water shortages worsen, countries that share water basins may struggle to protect their water rights. And terrorists "almost certainly" will target water infrastructure.

-Industrial demand for water will remain high, because water is needed to generate power, run industry and extract oil, gas and other resources. This means that water shortages and pollution likely will harm the economies of "important trading partners" of the United States.

The report covers the period to 2040. In that span, population growth and economic development will be the key reasons for growing water demand, while water supplies will decline in many places.

Climate change, meanwhile, will bring a higher risk of droughts and floods. Water stored in glaciers and snow will decline. Sea-level rise will mean that coastal storms will cause more damage.

"At times water flows will be severe enough to overwhelm the water-control infrastructures of even developed countries, including the United States," the report noted.

The least-prepared areas the intelligence analysts studied were the basins of the Amu Darya and Brahmaputra rivers. The Amu Darya basin in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) is expected to have poorer food security throughout the next 30 years. The Brahmaputra basin (Tibet, India and Bangladesh) is expected to have tensions over water-development projects, reduced potential for hydropower after 2020 and reduced food security, especially for fisheries, the report said.

Clinton said that in northern India, too much use of ground water could leave millions of people without enough food and water.

With the state’s growth management agency dismantled last year by lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott, agriculture and development interests are seizing the opportunity, he said.

He pointed to the appointment of Peña to the panel recommending changes in wetlands laws as particularly troubling. She’s president of the Las Palmas community association — several hundred small nurseries, ranches and farms west of Krome Avenue long known as the 8.5 Square Mile Area. Residents in the area have repeatedly ran afoul of DERM, racking up some 90 code and wetlands violations in the last decade, according to county records.

“It’s such a grim scenario that when it comes to participating in these county task forces and working groups, I don’t see any point to it,” he said.

The county’s environmental agency, charged with monitoring and enforcing a wide range of county, state and federal laws, has long been a lightning rod for criticism. But the tone has grown more strident.

During last month’s commission meeting, Peña ticked off a long list of complaints: inspectors jumping fences, DERM dragging people to court over unpaid fines and forbidding residents from using portions of their lands.

“Is this America, or are we now going to legitimize Gestapo tactics in this country?” she said.

Several commissioners were quick to share in the disdain, branding regulators as overzealous and out to bolster the agency’s budget by assessing fines. Despite “the best intentions,” Commissioner Bruno Barreiro said, “a great idea has morphed into something that’s basically a monster.”

Complaints grew so heated at early wetlands advisory meetings that the county ordered police protection, said Deputy Mayor Jack Osterholt, who oversees the planning, zoning and environmental agencies.

But Osterholt insisted the administration was looking to overhaul outdated and inconsistent environmental regulations and permitting requirements that cost businesses time and money — not to loosen regulations.

“The focus is unchanged,’’ Osterholt said. “The mission is unchanged.”

Bell, in an interview, insisted her goal in pushing for the wetlands laws wasn’t intended to open the door to more development but to “balance the needs of the average worker and the average small business.”

“I’m not trying to gut anything,” Bell said. “We are perceived as a county that’s unfriendly toward business. We have to change that.”

Environmentalists are skeptical. They contend the verbal attacks combined with shuffling leadership and staff cuts have undermined morale and created a “bunker mentality.” Since 2000, the DERM staff has dropped from 556 to 482, with another 56 cuts proposed for next year.

“There is a lot of pressure on them,” said Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society. “The climate is so bad, they’re afraid to say anything.”

Sara Fain, an attorney for the Everglades Law Center, said the complaints have come largely from landowners who have repeatedly flouted county laws and refused to pay court-ordered fines.

“It would be the same things as if I decided to install new windows in my house and didn’t apply for a permit,” she said. “This idea that DERM is trying to stop them from using their land is a fallacy.”

 

The ruling was drawn narrowly around the issue of judicial review rather than the larger question of the E.P.A.’s jurisdiction over wetlands. Nonetheless, property-rights advocates hailed it as a victory for individual freedoms over governmental authority.

For years, the E.P.A. has invoked its authority under the Clean Water Act to issue so-called compliance orders declaring a site to be a wetland and requiring owners to stop construction or to restore the land. Property owners could not seek judicial review of these orders without taking other administrative steps like applying for permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to build on a wetland.

Wetlands have been accorded federal protection because of their role as natural incubators and as water-cleansing filters within larger ecosystems. The agency argued that compliance orders are crucial to its ability to step in and guard such areas from illegal development, and that immediate judicial review of these administrative actions would undermine the Clean Water Act.

But the couple bringing the case, Michael and Chantell Sackett, argued that they should be able to ask a court to rule immediately on an agency order that carries with it the threat of fines of $75,000 a day.

The Sacketts had sought a hearing with the E.P.A. but were denied one. They then sued for judicial review of the wetlands determination.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said, “There is no reason to think that the Clean Water Act was uniquely designed to enable the strong-arming of regulated parties into ‘voluntary compliance’ without the opportunity for judicial review.”

The ruling in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 10-1062, did not address the question of the E.P.A.’s jurisdiction, particularly over wetlands. This issue was addressed — but not clearly decided — in a 2006 case involving a Michigan developer, John Rapanos.

In a statement, the E.P.A. said, “E.P.A. will, of course, fully comply with the Supreme Court’s decision, which the agency is still reviewing, as we work to protect clean water for our families and future generations by using the tools provided by Congress to enforce the Clean Water Act.”

In a concurring opinion, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. called on Congress to end the ambiguity over the E.P.A.’s jurisdiction. “Real relief requires Congress to do what it should have done in the first place: provide a reasonably clear rule regarding the reach of the Clean Water Act,” he wrote.

The Sacketts were represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian group in California. Their case drew support from groups including the National Association of Home Builders, the National Federation of Independent Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

 

Scott again faces decision on vetoing environmental restoration projects

Bruce Ritchie, 03/21/2012 - 01:47 PM

A year after Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $10 million for environmental restoration projects, two senators are supporting about the same amount again -- and are hoping for a better outcome.

When he signed his first state budget as governor last year, Scott vetoed $10 million for St. Johns River restoration projects among $615 million in spending vetos. He didn't give a reason for vetoing the river projects but said Florida families were having to get by with less and so should state government.

The 2012-13 state budget passed by the Legislature has $19 million in water quality projects (Line 1683A) including $5.6 million for St. Johns River restoration, $3.5 million for a Hendry County airport utility system, and $2.3 million for a LaBelle sewage treatment plant. 

An additional $400,000 was appropriated for an economic analysis of the St. Johns River by the University of North Florida. Another $4.8 million is appropriated (Line 1863A) for restoration projects for Lake Apopka north of Orlando, one of Florida's largest lakes.

Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said Tuesday that he wants to get Scott onto the river, but not to press him on the budget item.

"I think we're going to be OK on the budget -- that's my gut feeling," Thrasher said. "We want to get him out there as governor soon, to see what we consider a real treasure for our area."

The St. Johns River has algal blooms caused by nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater treatment plants, discharges from farms and dairy operations and dirty stormwater runoff. The St. Johns River Water Management District is considering a 2011 list of projects that could receive some of the $5.6 million, district officials said.

Asked what criteria he will use to veto environmental projects, Scott told reporters Tuesday, "What I will do with anything in the budget having to do with the environment -- I will look at it (and) get advice from the Department of Environmental Protection to make sure it is money well spent."

In December, Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla and chairman of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on General Government Appropriations, co-hosted the Lake Apopka Restoration Summit to review progress being made and discuss its future. 

Lake Apopka lost 20,000 acres of shoreline wetlands to farming beginning in the 1940s and received high-phosphorus discharges from those farms until the late 1990s. The district purchased the farmland in the late 1990s and created a marsh treatment flow-way in 2003.

Recalling how Lake Apopka was a prized fishing lake before its ecological collapse, Hays told The Florida Current that the $4.8 million will be used to identify new technologies that can accelerate the lake's restoration. The budget language requires the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to submit a list of projects to the Legislature before it receives the money.

"I think it is incumbent on those of us who care about the health of Lake Apopka and about the health of the St. Johns River to impress upon the governor why those projects are important to the long term health of the state of Florida," Hays said. "I don't stand to gain a single thing out of either one of those."

Reporter Travis Pillow contributed to this report.

South Florida, low-lying and smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley, has the greatest number of people and places at risk from rising sea levels, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

The report from Climate Central, an independent research and journalism organization, suggests Miami-Dade and Broward counties alone have more people vulnerable to flooding than any state except Florida and Louisiana.

The “Surging Seas” report, which echoes and expands on previous studies by universities and government agencies that have pinpointed South Florida as ground zero for global warming impacts, can be found at climatecentral.org. It includes an interactive map that can zoom in to show which communities would inundated under different potential levels of sea level rise.

The analysis was based on a projected potential rise of four feet, with increased damage from hurricane storm surge and flooding from seasonal high tides compounding the threats.

Overall, Florida also ranks as the most vulnerable to sea level rise, with some 2.4 million people, 1.3 million homes and 107 cities at risk from a four foot rise, according to the report. Louisiana, by comparison, has 65 cities below the four-foot mark. New Jersey and North Carolina have 22 each, Maryland 14 and New York 13.

The study projects that under current trends, the most vulnerable areas could see increased flooding as early as 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international science panel, officially estimates that the average sea level could rise from seven to about 24 inches by 2100 but notes it could be higher under some scenarios.

Everglades restoration project could also boost Broward drinking water supplies

A long-proposed Broward County water preserve could boost Broward drinking water supplies and create more of a buffer between the Everglades and Weston, Pembroke Pines and other western communities. (South Florida Sun Sentinel file photo)

By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel

6:39 p.m. EST, February 19, 2012

A proposed Broward County water preserve that could boost local drinking water supplies and help the Everglades may get sunk again by congressional inaction.

Local backers had hoped to get Congress this year to sign off on the long-planned, nearly $900 million Broward County Water Preserve Area, bordering Weston, Pembroke Pines, Southwest Ranches and Miramar.

Supporters are still pushing for a vote, but with election-year fighting adding to partisan paralysis in Washington, plans for the water preserve threaten to remain stuck on the shelf.

"Clean water is a No. 1 concern of voters. … If we can just get (Congress) to see that," said Cara Capp, of the environmental group Clean Water Action.

 

Joe Cavaretta / Sun Sentinel

• Photo

By Andy Reid

Sun Sentinel

The clock is officially ticking on repairs needed to upgrade the levee that keeps the Everglades from flooding Broward and Palm Beach counties.

February triggered the start of the South Florida Water Management District’s two-year window to fix the Broward section of the East Coast Protective Levee, which falls short of federal safety standards.

The district, Broward County and eight western cities now have three months to finalize an agreement aimed at getting the levee up to the standards of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Inspectors have also identified deficiencies in the Palm Beach County portion of the levee, which will be subject to its own FEMA review – also expected to require upgrades.

 

Bruce Ritchie, 03/15/2012 - 05:01 PM

 

Select Committee on Water Policy Chairwoman Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, guides the committee. She says she's considering a run for Senate. Photo Credit: Florida House of Representatives 3-11-11

A House committee chairwoman said Thursday that her committee's bill to extend the length of water-use permits seemed like a "no-brainer" and she was surprised it died without a vote in the Senate.

HB 7045 by the Select Committee on Water Policy would have extended permits for alternative water supply projects from at least 20 years to at least 30 years in state law. Supporters said the bill would have encouraged water utilities to protect scarce water supplies by making it easier and cheaper for them to borrow money for water projects.

The bill passed the House 116-0 on Feb. 15 and was never taken up in the Senate. The Senate companion, SB 1178, passed three committees but died awaiting action at its final stop, the Senate Budget Committee.

If the state approves the $47 million plan, it means the aquifer would be depleted a little more slowly. But it also means people in the tri-county area could be drinking treated wastewater every time they turn on the tap.

The concept of recharging the aquifer with treated sewage isn't new, but the city's project is different, said Rick Nevulis, a water reuse coordinator with the South Florida Water Management District. Pembroke Pines will inject the water directly into the ground. West Palm Beach, Sunrise, Tindall Hammock, Pahokee, Wellington and Homestead pump their purified sewage into wetlands, lakes or fields, where it percolates into the aquifer over a period of months or years.

Those six utilities now pump a combined 6.5 million gallons of purified sewage into the water supply each day. Pembroke Pines' plan would double that.

This is a long time coming, Nevulis said. The rest of the state already pumps much of its sewage back into its water supplies, and South Florida is behind.

Only about 71 million gallons of the approximately 640 million gallons of sewage the tri-county area produces each day gets reused in any way, and almost all of that goes toward irrigation.

The plan does have an "ick" factor, admitted City Manager Charles Dodge. But he guarantees the water will be pure and drinkable.

"The water will be very, very well treated," he said. "It's not as if you would know it went through this process."

Pembroke Pines' 7 million gallons a day may go into the ground in the city, but there's no way of telling where it will come out, said Harold Wanless, professor and chair of geological sciences at the University of Miami.

"Aquifers flow," Wanless said. "It's difficult to tell where any particular water will move to. We don't have the large conduits inside the aquifer well mapped."

The plan is necessary to regain the city's water use permit from the South Florida Water Management District. The aquifer — a 4,000 square mile system of underground limestone caves filled with water — is running low and the district has ordered that utilities come up with additional sources of water.