FL GOP's Laser-Like Environmental Focus: Find Out Whether The Sea Is Rising Or The Land Is Sinking

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Approved unanimously by a House subcommittee, HB 1157 would charge Florida International University, the Department of Environmental Protection, and other state universities to collect and analyze data. Rep. Blaise Ingoglia – a Republican from Spring Hill – is the bill’s sponsor.

“We’ve heard numerous reports about certain areas of the state flooding more than usual; we’ve also hear about projections that certain cities on our coast will be under water because of the prospect of sea level rise,” Ingoglia told the subcommittee. “What we don’t know is how much of this flooding in these areas is attributed to rising seas, and how much is attributable to land subsidence.”

GPS beacons will track the vertical positioning of the soil to see if flooding is caused solely by sea level rise. “Or, if the land is effectively sinking because we are putting quadrillions of tons of steel and concrete on sandbars and marshlands,” Ingoglia said. “Thereby compacting the soil and lowering the elevations further below the flood elevation.”

The program, says Ingoglia, is statewide and based on a $355,000 appropriation to FIU a while back to begin a pilot project at Miami Beach. “It’s anywhere between 3 and 5 of these beacons; I think they just finished the permitting process so they’re starting to collect the data now,” said Ingoglia. “But this allows FIU to contract with other state universities to get these beacons all over the state.”

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https://www.wuwf.org/post/environmental-bills-return-tallahassee#stream/0