Eyesontherise.org team members Juliet Pinto and Kate MacMillin received the Best Short Documentary award at the DocMiami ceremony Sept. 13 for their work that has led to great public discourse related to sea level rise in South Florida. Watch South Florida’s Rising Seas here!
FIU’s Dr. Juliet Pinto Leads Tour of Water Systems in Post-Katrina New Orleans
By Juliet Pinto
Becoming resilient in the face of rising seas can take many forms, something those who cover impacts of changing climates understand well.
Dr. Juliet Pinto, who is an eyesontherise.org team member, participated in the 24th annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in New Orleans, La., Sept. 3-7, 2014, “Risk and Resiliency.”
Dr. Juliet Pinto
Together with Jeff Adelson from the New Orleans Advocate, she co-led the “Risky Business” tour for journalists, academics and others, which focused on the $14.5 billion hurricane storm surge risk reduction system constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers that includes new pumps, levees and surge barriers.
Tour speakers from the Corps, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West as well as citizens and activists who lived through the storm highlighted the stark differences between the systems pre- and post-Katrina. The group viewed portions of the post-Katrina Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, designed by the Corps to keep at bay the storm surge that would otherwise come into New Orleans’ canal systems and waterways and flood the city and surrounding areas.
“We’re taking the fight to the storm, instead of letting the storm come to us,” Corps public affairs specialist, Rene Poche said. […]
Watch how Florida International University’s Geographic Information Systems Center is tracking sea level rise.
Take a look at the above video that has students in a multimedia capstone course – the final class students take before graduating Florida International University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication – explaining the intentionality behind work they produced in summer 2014 for eyesontherise.org. In addition to covering issues connected to rising sea levels in South Florida, students:[…]
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. […]
View larger map SOURCE: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
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. […]
