Welcome Back to your weekly News Brief!
Read Climate change is a fiscal disaster for local governments − our study shows how it’s testing communities in Florida - “Climate change is affecting communities nationwide, but Florida often seems like ground zero. In September 2022, Hurricane Ian devastated southwest Florida, killing at least 156 people and causing an estimated US$113 billion in damages. Then Hurricane Idalia shut down the Florida Panhandle in September 2023, augmented by a blue supermoon that also increased tidal flooding in southeast Florida. Communities can adapt to some of these effects, or at least buy time, by taking steps such as upgrading stormwater systems and raising roads and sidewalks. But climate disasters and sea-level rise also harm local governments financially by increasing costs and undercutting their property tax bases. Local reliance on property taxes also can discourage cities from steering development out of flood zones, which is essential for reducing long-term risks. In a newly published study and supporting online StoryMap, we present the first-ever municipal fiscal impact assessment of sea-level rise in Florida and combine it with a statewide survey of coastal planners and managers. We wanted to know how sea-level rise would affect municipal tax revenues and whether coastal planners and managers are accounting for these fiscal impacts. Our study finds that over half of Florida’s 410 municipalities will be affected by 6.6 feet of sea-level rise. Almost 30% of all local revenues currently generated by these 211 municipalities come from buildings in areas that will become chronically flooded, potentially by the end of the century. Yet, planners and managers remain largely unaware of how much climate change will affect local fiscal health. Some communities with the most at risk are doing the least to prepare… Property tax revenues may decline as insurance companies and property markets downgrade property values to reflect climate impacts, such as increasing flood risks and wildfires. Already, a growing number of insurance companies have decided to stop covering some regions and types of weather events, raise premiums and deductibles and drop existing policies as payouts rise in the wake of natural disasters. Growing costs of insuring or repairing homes may further hurt property values and increase home abandonment. Climate change also makes it more expensive to provide municipal services like water, sewage and road maintenance. For example, high heat buckles roads, rising water tables wash out their substructure, and heavier rains stress stormwater systems. If cities don’t adapt, increasing damage from climate-driven disasters and sea-level rise will create a vicious fiscal cycle, eroding local tax bases and driving up services costs – which in turn leaves less money for adaptation. However, if cities reduce development in vulnerable areas, their property taxes and other revenues will take a hit. And if they build more seawalls and homes fortified to withstand hurricanes and storms, they will induce more people to live in harm’s way. In Florida, we found that these theoretical dynamics are already occurring.” Linda Shi, Tisha Holmes, and William Butler investigate in the Conversation.
Read Manatee County votes to cut local wetland protections in favor of developer interests - “The Manatee County Commission voted to cut back the government’s environmental protections for local wetlands over the protests of hundreds of residents. After an extended debate on the issue, which saw dozens of residents concerned about conserving sensitive wetlands in the Bradenton area, the board voted 5-1 to reduce buffer requirements. Scientists predict the change will have a negative impact on local water quality, which in many cases already fails to meet state standards. Based on the new rules, developers will have more real estate to build homes and businesses along wetlands, generally described as marsh or swampland. A buffer between construction and wetlands is still required, but Thursday’s vote cuts that buffer in half. County staff estimated the rule change would affect 66,000 pieces of land that contain some portion of wetlands… Abbey Tyrna, a wetland ecologist and executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper, gave a slide presentation highlighting the potential impacts of the rule changes, including repercussions beyond reduced buffer sizes. Suncoast Waterkeeper also gathered over 2,300 signatures in an online “Save Our Wetlands” petition opposing the buffer reduction. Tyrna argued the language changes will leave some wetlands that are not covered by state laws entirely unprotected. The county’s current language protects “all viable wetlands.” Ryan Ballogg and Ryan Callihan cover for the Bradenton Herald.
Read Coral researchers see ‘mass mortality’ amid Florida Reef bleaching crisis - “Battered by heat, washed out to a bleached, white hue and ravaged by disease, corals offshore of Key Largo used what little energy they had left to spawn the next generation that could save their populations. These elkhorn and staghorn corals — recognized by their iconic branching arms that provide habitat for hundreds of species — are some of the most vulnerable among reefs. Just weeks after spawning season, more than 90% of those parent corals are dead.Elkhorn corals are already considered “functionally extinct” in the upper Keys, and other elkhorn and staghorn populations in the Florida Reef are following suit, according to Liv Williamson, an assistant scientist of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami. That means there are a small number of individual corals left in the only living barrier reef in the continental United States — the world’s third-largest. It stretches about 360 miles from Dry Tortugas National Park to the St. Lucie Inlet — but they can’t reproduce enough in the wild to support a viable population… While some coral diseases are spreading across Florida’s hot waters, researchers will be bracing for another round of mortalities once waters cool this fall and winter and algae return to the surviving corals. “That’s when I kind of worry about seeing disease take off more — sort of after recovery,” Williamson said. Researchers still don’t quite know the exact toll heat and disease have already taken on Florida’s corals this year. Williamson said it could be months before those numbers are crunched. There’s one big reason: It’s still hot. Surface water temperatures have returned to abnormally high levels after a brief cool-off brought by hurricane activity, according to Ian Enochs, who leads the coral program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab. There’s no telling when the water temperatures will cool for the rest of the year…” Jack Prator details for the Tampa Bay Times.
Read The race to protect Florida's Wildlife Corridor - “The Florida Wildlife Corridor stretches from the Everglades to North Florida and to the Panhandle. It includes animals like the Florida black bear, the Key deer, Florida manatee, Loggerhead sea turtle and more, along with many threatened plant species. The corridor also allows animals freedom to roam between areas of protected conservation land… Deen says she's optimistic about the future of the wildlife corridor, despite losing wild places to growth. "Yes, our state is growing every single day and rapidly. So a lot of that acreage is very vulnerable," says Deen. "You know, we will protect a few more million acres. Will we catch all 8 million? No. That's not the goal. The goal is to protect a functional statewide corridor from Pensacola to the Florida Keys. And that opportunity can 100% become a reality." Truenow says agriculture is an important factor in conserving land as well as protecting wildlife.” Steve Newborn and Matthew Peddie discuss for WUSF.
Read Sebastian septic-to-sewer conversions could cost up to $23,000 per property - “The City Council and the County Commission discussed the local septic-to-sewer conversion project at a joint meeting Sept. 21. One thing is for sure: The work will be pricey. It could cost $5,000 to $23,000 per property, according to the county. A major concern of the elected officials is how to reduce the cost to homeowners… The city has an estimated estimated 11,000-12,000 septic tanks. A new state law requires property owners with septic systems to convert them to a sewer system or to an enhanced nutrient-reducing septic tank by July 1, 2030. The law was aimed protecting bodies of water. In Sebastian's case, water that escapes a septic system has the potential to flow into the Indian River Lagoon.” Nick Slater writes for the Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Read Archaeologists dive into Florida’s past and find lessons on adapting to future sea rise - “Halligan, an associate professor of anthropology at Florida State University, studies the first people who came to Florida about 15,000 years ago, when sea levels were 300 feet lower than they are today. These days, many of Florida’s oldest settlements, hunting grounds and ceremonial mounds are at the bottom of rivers or the Gulf of Mexico. Florida is one of the global epicenters for a little-known field called “submerged landscape archaeology.” There are only about a dozen full-time scientists working in the field in the U.S. They tend to focus on Florida because the state has lost half its landmass to sea level rise since humans started living here. Scientists have found evidence of ancient shell mounds as far as 20 miles into the Gulf, one of thousands of preserved archaeological sites hidden under the state’s gentle rivers and along the wide, shallow continental shelf that stretches 200 miles off the state’s west coast. The stories that archaeologists like Halligan unearth from the depths offer lessons for modern Floridians who are now facing sea level rise once again… But as sea levels rose — sometimes gradually, at an average rate of about three feet per century, and sometimes in quick pulses of about a dozen feet per century — ancient Floridians were forced to adapt. Cook Hale has found evidence of this in the shell mounds native people build along the coast near Apalachee Bay. There are shell middens on land along the modern coastline — but Cook Hale has also dived on middens as far as five miles off the coast and seen evidence of shell mounds 20 miles off the coast…” Nicolas Rivero covers for the Miami Herald.
FROM OUR READERS
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