Here are ways to protect our drinking water from rising seas
Over sea walls. Up through storm drains. And even into wells needed to keep your faucets flowing.
Sea-level rise isn’t just a flooding threat to South Florida. The invading sea is also seeping in underground and coming for your drinking water.
Decades of too much pumping and draining to provide both drinking water and flood control leave South Florida susceptible to “saltwater intrusion” — when the ocean moves in and contaminates underground freshwater sources.
Now in some of South Florida’s most vulnerable spots, sea-level rise is expected to push that underground line of saltwater inland at twice the rate it would otherwise move, according to U.S. Geological Survey projections.
Facing this growing threat requires investing in costly alternative water supplies and making better use of the freshwater sources we often take for granted.
Cities from Jupiter to Fort Lauderdale to Miami already sit within or near the line of saltwater pushing farther inland into the Biscayne Aquifer, which most communities rely on for drinking water.
Broward County within 50 years expects to lose 41 percent of its coastal well field capacity to the underground push of saltwater.
Miami-Dade County already relies on western wells to keep providing fresh water.
It’s a saltwater invasion expected to get worse. South Florida’s sea level is projected to rise about 2 feet by 2060 as the atmosphere gets warmer, primarily from the emission of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
“As the seas rise, that saltwater front moves farther inland,” Broward’s Chief Climate Resilience Officer Jennifer Jurado said. “It is already happening.”
Just as South Florida must raise its seawalls and boost its pumping power to ease flooding, more must be done to limit seawater from contaminating our drinking water. That should include: and eventually Miami-Dade. If the potential $400 million price is too high, it’s time to focus on other water-storage alternatives.
“By storing and redirecting water … we increase the resiliency of our ecosystem and we reduce the vulnerability of our (drinking) water supply in South Florida,” said Stephen Davis, wetlands expert for the Everglades Foundation. “We continue to recharge the aquifer.”