By Toni-Ann Ferguson, Karina Gandylyan and Garfield Williams

eyesontherise.org

MIAMI GARDENS – Drenched in sweat, Garth Bowas walked back to his truck, leaving a trail of muddy boot prints behind him. He wiped the beaded sweat from his forehead and took a breath of relief.

“I wouldn’t change my job for the world,” he said.

A septic technician for Mr. C’s Plumbing and Septic in Miami Gardens for five years, Bowas finds himself most days dealing with mud and muck, cleaning, repairing, and installing drain fields and septic tanks – tanks that soon might be flooded-out due to sea level rise throughout South Florida.

“Septic tanks are just another business but it is solving people’s problems,” said Kemble Ettrick, the vice president and operations director at Mr. C’s.

How tanks work

But in Miami-Dade County, anything that has to do with water – and wastewater – isn’t just “another business.” Theirs is one that deals with immediacy and can have a real impact on the health of neighborhoods, as septic tanks are used to dispose of wastewater from toilets and “graywater,” water that comes from people’s showers and dishwashers. […]

Take a look at the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force Report and Recommendations, which was released earlier this month. (Image of storm surge model from report)

Among its recommendations:

- accelerat(e) the adaptation planning process by seeking and formally selecting the engineering and other relevant expertise needed to develop the robust capital plan, vetting the elements (i.e., flood protection, salinity structures, pump stations, road and bridge designs, etc., just to name a few possibilities) as well as what measurable indicators will trigger timely sequencing. […]

The Eyes on the Rise Project Team, in conjunction with the FIU GIS Center and Code for Miami are working on an application for South Florida residents to better understand the impact of sea level rise on their homes and businesses. While this tool is still under development, I thought I would share one of our ideas and interface sketches with you.

A DATABASE OF CITIZEN-REPORTED FLOODS

We are creating an app to allow South Floridians to create a database of flooding incidents in their areas. While this is not an official application (citizen reports are not filed with government agencies), it will allow local residents to create their own catalog of flooding incidents. It will also attempt to match your address to the appropriate local agency where you can report a flood.

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