Remember that awful Miami Beach Commission meeting I posted about the scientific studies and how Miami Beach "experts" debunked the study published by 4 scientists with a combined experience of 113 years as Scientists in their fields of study and Mayor Levine trashed the reputation of a renowned scientist, Hal Wanless -- well here is a rebuttal to the Miami Beach experts and South Miami Philip Stoddard asks the right questions and he addresses directly the Miami Beach "Experts" claims trashing the study (Power Point of FIU and NOAA Joint Study is at the end of this blog). Stoddard KNOWS what is bullshit, we would just listen to the Miami Beach "Experts" and nod like idiots.
Really listen-up. What else do you have to do? Do you think I like writing on a Sunday. NO - so why the hell should you have fun when I am not? Listen to the damn podcast. I moved it up to 12 minutes (you can move it around as you want if you get bored Phillip comes in at 15 minutes. He is a professor so he is very easy to understand, he makes it easy). I URGE YOU TO LISTEN.
Here is the video again so you can refresh your memory of what transpired at the Commission meeting BUT YOU ARE NOT TO WATCH THE VIDEO YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST -- LINK ABOVE.
As it says on ONLY IN MIAMI BY GRANT STERN (quoted from article by Zac Cosner):
Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez is waging a lonely fight against her own city, because it refuses to admit that the island’s vaunted pump system is creating serious environmental hazards in Biscayne Bay.
Miami Beach installed pumps to fight sea level rise, but without proper filtration FIU and NOAA scientists found nutrients and bacteria consistent with human waste in coastal waters while the pumps are in use, in a report you can see below.
“Miami Beach took some bold steps to invest a lot of money in trying to keep their streets dry,” according to South Miami’s Mayor Phil Stoddard, who is also scientist and professor at Florida International University.
The city is holding a public hearing on pump issues Wednesday, June 8th at their regularly scheduled Commission meeting that starts at 8:30, so you can listen to the complete podcast if you’re planning to attend and be well informed right here:
The City is currently acting on plans to invest upwards of $500 million to combat the imminent peril of mass flooding by raising roads, building on seawalls and constructing a system of 80 new storm-water pumps to remove excess water.
“The high levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorus are also a bad sign,” claimed Stoddard, “Perhaps the most worrying element of this pollution is the presence of bacteria associated with human waste. The study’s authors found concentrations of live fecal bacteria well above state standards, reaching heights of up to 600 times the state limit.”
Twenty of those pumps have already been constructed, with 60 left to complete.
“The deterioration of the bay is going to affect all of us and our economy,” said Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez whose efforts to first document and then obtain a scientific study of the problem have been rewarded with little more than political, unprofessional distrust of science from her fellow elected officials, “While it is important that the city of Miami Beach takes proactive steps to combat the impacts of climate change, we must not allow ourselves to sacrifice the health of our citizens, the vitality of our tourist economy.”
“We must not sacrifice the integrity of our natural environment in the present in order to do so.”
Unfortunately, according to recent studies by scientists from FIU and NOAA, the storm water pumps which dry streets have created some significant, and unexpected consequences.
The City of Miami Beach’s leaders have certainly proven themselves to be cognizant of the threat of sea level rise driven by climate change.
In fact, Miami Beach has been quite proactive in its response to increased flooding.
“It has been an impressive success,” Stoddard said discussing the effectiveness of the pumps, which have dried the island city’s streets.
And according to Commissioner Rosen-Gonzalez, the city of Miami Beach is “writing the playbook” on sea level rise response right now.
It’s one of the sad ironies of life, that in trying to solve the problems set before us, we all too often end up creating even greater dilemmas with which to contend like these Miami Beach pumps spewing human waste where residents swim, boat and fish.
The City of Miami Beach and its surrounding community are currently feeling the brunt of this tragic irony first hand, according to recent research by scientists from FIU and NOAA.
The scientists concluded that the storm-water pumps the the tourist mecca has been installing to combat sunny day flooding, brought on by global sea level rise, have been leaking massive amounts of nutrient pollution into Biscayne Bay while they are in use, as well as massively elevated levels of Fecal Coliform.
“The authors of the study used a technique known as “Polymerase Chain Reaction” (which is used to create many individual copies of a single piece of DNA) to establish that while some of the bacteria came from the intestines of dogs, human waste accounted for the majority of the pollution. (SNIP)
THE JOINT STUDY OF THE MIAMI BEACH POLLUTION POWERPOINT
3 comments:
The only in miami podcast helped me to understand the PowerPoint 's science.
How discouraging to see the bullying and name calling on the MB Council. Using pure opinion, the most vocal commissioners concluded (as if fact) that the article was "sloppy science and sloppy journalism by people hoping to sell newspapers and books". I'll call that sloppy public service.
Maybe they should acknowledge that Miami Beach had turned into Vegas on a beach and is overpopulated. That, in itself, leads to problems of environmental contamination that need to be addressed, not disguised.
Florida politicians are an embarrassment!
City of Miami Beach just needs rip up all the streets and fix the old sanitary sewer pipes. Shouldn't cost more than a billion to do the pumps, sanitary sewer lines and streetscaping. Or they could just hire every scientist in the region and make them sign a nondisclosure form. Which one do you think Miami Beach will do?
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