South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Bill addresses threat of sea-level rise to inland areas
The surprising threat of sea-level rise to inland neighborhoods is the focus of a bill introduced by two South Florida members of the state Legislature.
The bill would require state-funded infrastructure projects such as roads to take sea-level rise into account even if the work is being done far from the coast, since some inland areas are vulnerable to the rising ocean.
Western Broward and Miami-Dade counties, for example, face a higher flood risk from rain because their flood-control systems depend on a downhill flow of water to the ocean, a system that’s disrupted when the ocean gets too high. The higher ocean also can affect inland areas through groundwater.
Current law requires sea-level rise to be considered only for coastal projects, Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, said Tuesday.
“The focus has always been on doing these studies if it’s a coastal building,” she said. “It’s ignoring the impact of sea-level rise in the more inland communities. So that’s what this is trying to address.”
Sponsoring the bill in the Senate is Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Doral.
Sea-level rise has made it more difficult for South Florida’s drainage system to function, affecting communities running all the way to the Everglades.
The canals that drain water to the ocean depend partly on gravity. When water managers raise canal
gates, the water flows east to the ocean. But when the ocean rises so high that the water level is the same on both sides of the gate, the drainage system can’t function.
That happened in 2020 in Tropical Storm Eta, when floodwater remained in southwest Broward for days, partly because the elevated ocean blocked canals.