MiamiHerald.com - Curtis Morgan - March 10, 2013 Courtesy of Kathy Gilbeaux
Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper, a clean-water advocacy group, filed suit in Federal Court challenging Miami-Dade’s $1.5 billion plan to repair the county’s aging, spill-plagued sewage system.
Drawn up by climate scientists as part of an environmental lawsuit, the maps indicate the plants in coastal South Miami-Dade, North Miami and Virginia Key would remain dry in coming decades. But they’d be reduced to shrinking islands as high tides flood land, streets and neighborhoods nearby. It could happen faster than experts predicted only a few years ago — with a damaging two-foot rise potentially coming in less than 50 years, not the next century.
The sobering scenarios were filed last month in federal court by Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper, a clean-water advocacy group challenging Miami-Dade’s $1.5 billion plan to repair the county’s aging, spill-plagued sewage system. The Water and Sewer Department has drawn up the proposal, called a “consent decree,’’ under the pressure of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawsuit and threat of millions of dollars in potential fines.
Critics contend it has a gaping hole: It ignores looming sea-rise that both county and EPA planning policies acknowledge poses trouble, potentially deep trouble, for a region in line to feel the earliest effects of climate change. Miami-Dade endorsed a pioneering four-county compact that calls for adapting roads and buildings for climate change. Last year, the EPA released two reports promoting “climate ready” utilities.
Yet after 10 months of negotiations between agencies, the sewer plan doesn’t contain a word about dealing with flooding tides or the sort of storm surge that devastated the Northeast during Hurricane Sandy. No calls for sea walls, elevated separating tanks, stronger casks for pressurized liquid chlorine or other “armoring” measures.
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Drawn up by climate scientists as part of an environmental lawsuit, the maps indicate the plants in coastal South Miami-Dade, North Miami and Virginia Key would remain dry in coming decades. But they’d be reduced to shrinking islands as high tides flood land, streets and neighborhoods nearby. It could happen faster than experts predicted only a few years ago — with a damaging two-foot rise potentially coming in less than 50 years, not the next century.
The sobering scenarios were filed last month in federal court by Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper, a clean-water advocacy group challenging Miami-Dade’s $1.5 billion plan to repair the county’s aging, spill-plagued sewage system. The Water and Sewer Department has drawn up the proposal, called a “consent decree,’’ under the pressure of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawsuit and threat of millions of dollars in potential fines.
Critics contend it has a gaping hole: It ignores looming sea-rise that both county and EPA planning policies acknowledge poses trouble, potentially deep trouble, for a region in line to feel the earliest effects of climate change. Miami-Dade endorsed a pioneering four-county compact that calls for adapting roads and buildings for climate change. Last year, the EPA released two reports promoting “climate ready” utilities.
Yet after 10 months of negotiations between agencies, the sewer plan doesn’t contain a word about dealing with flooding tides or the sort of storm surge that devastated the Northeast during Hurricane Sandy. No calls for sea walls, elevated separating tanks, stronger casks for pressurized liquid chlorine or other “armoring” measures.
Read entire article
Drawn up by climate scientists as part of an environmental lawsuit, the maps indicate the plants in coastal South Miami-Dade, North Miami and Virginia Key would remain dry in coming decades. But they’d be reduced to shrinking islands as high tides flood land, streets and neighborhoods nearby. It could happen faster than experts predicted only a few years ago — with a damaging two-foot rise potentially coming in less than 50 years, not the next century.' 
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