Can Miami's Aquifer Survive Climate Change?

Climate change is endangering drinking water resources in Miami-Dade County.

“We have a very delicate balance in a highly managed system. That balance is very likely to get upset by sea-level rise,” Douglas Yoder, deputy director of the county’s water and sewer department, told Bloomberg Businessweek.

The geography of the Miami area makes it particularly difficult to protect drinking water resources.

“The glimmering metropolis between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades reveals itself to be a thin lattice of earth and concrete laid across a puddle that never stops forming. Water seeps up through the gravel under construction sites, nibbles at the edges of fresh subdivisions, and shimmers through the cracks and in-between places of the city above it,” the report stated.

Climate change is throwing a wrench in the gears of the “giant but fragile machine” that is Miami’s water infrastructure, the report stated.

In particular, climate change endangers the Biscayne Aquifer, which consists of “4,000 square miles of unusually shallow and porous limestone whose tiny air pockets are filled with rainwater and rivers running from the swamp to the ocean.”

The problem is that “the permeability that makes the aquifer so easily accessible also makes it vulnerable.”

In essence, the aquifer could be easily contaminated, the report stated, citing Rachel Silverstein, executive director of Miami Waterkeeper. “Drinking water supply is always an existential question,” she said.

Officials are puzzling over how long Miami can keep its water safe and what that will cost, the report stated. BBC News called Miami “ground zero” in the battle against rising seas.

“One recent report estimated that Miami has the most to lose in terms of financial assets of any coastal city in the world, just above Guangzhou, China and New York City,” BBC News reported.

Miami is already struggling with the consequences of climate change, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. That includes an increase in the frequency of flooding and toxic algae blooms.

In August, algae became such a point of concern for Florida residents that thousands of residents staged a demonstration on the beach calling on policy officials to protect water resources, according to NBC 2.