Sea Level Rise and Social Cost of Carbon

[Sigmetnow]

An easy read explaining the Antarctic ice crisis, for those who don't like graphs and charts. 

Climate Catastrophe, Coming Even Sooner?
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/climate-catastrophe-coming-even-sooner

[Sigmetnow]

But for those who like the maths... 
Size of a photon versus the size of a CO₂ molecule:

It's the Number Density Not the Mixing Ratio
http://rabett.blogspot.com/2016/04/its-number-density-not-mixing-ratio.html

[AbruptSLR]

But for those who like the maths... 
Size of a photon versus the size of a CO₂ molecule:

It's the Number Density Not the Mixing Ratio
http://rabett.blogspot.com/2016/04/its-number-density-not-mixing-ratio.html

It does seem silly to me that the IPCC issues Likelihood Scales (first image) and even probability density functions for GMSL by 2100 for RCP 8.5 (see second & third images); when findings like DeConto & Pollard (2016) can dramatically change these probabilities (and the IPCC only addresses such abrupt possible changes with a footnote).

[AbruptSLR]

Here is a nice SLR overview by Rignot up to the DeConto & Pollard (2016) paper with ice cliffs and hydrofracturing:

Eric Rignot (AGU Dec 2015)


With a hat-tip to Lennart van der Linde, the following provides a nice overview of DeConto & Pollard's work including ice cliffs and hydrofracturing:

Robert DeConto (New Zealand, SCARS)

[AbruptSLR]

While it is pleasant to think that society will reduce its radiative forcing footprint sufficiently to avoid abrupt sea level rise this century, if DeConto & Pollard (2016) are close to being right (and we follow a BAU pathway for several more decades) then we should start to think now what that means.  Two less obvious impacts are that:
(a) While it takes centuries to millennia to build beaches, they can be inundated and eroded (everywhere in the world at once) in decades, as indicated in the first image.  This also applies to river deltas and to barrier islands.
(b) Seawater intrusion into the groundwater can extend for many miles (kilometers) inland, and few locations can afford well points to control this intrusion as shown in the second image for Southern Florida.  This intrusion not only affect water from wells, but also corrodes buried utilities.

[Sigmetnow]

Director Josh Fox, (Gasland, Gasland II) has a new documentary film “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change,” which he is screening tonight here in Miami.

How to keep caring when it’s ‘staggeringly too late’ to stop climate change

What does this film set out to do?

When you’re dealing with climate change, I think there’s sort of a tennis match that happens, sort of ping-ponging back and forth between despair and denial. One minute you think there’s no way to solve this problem and the next minute you’re just suppressing and denying it. And that is the problem right now with why we’re not acting on climate. I think when you go through the despair and you go through all the emotions and difficulties of it, you can still come out the other side.

Rather than a stale, scientific presentation of this subject, this is an emotional roller coaster ride. It takes you through the fear and the horror and then comes out the other side and on the other side is all the things that we can do, all the things that are worth saving. Those are civic virtues, courage, innovation, creativity, human rights, democracy, civil disobedience. There are things within human beings that are so strong that no storm can take them away. That is what’s on the other side of delving into the climate problem.

I think we avoid the climate problem a lot unless it’s right in our face and you know this film sort of says, “This is another way to deal with this.”

https://thenewtropic.com/how-to-let-go-of-the-world/

[Sigmetnow]

New web portal shines beacon on rising seas

Sea level rise is a critical global issue affecting millions across our planet. A new Web portal developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, gives researchers, decision makers and the public alike a resource to stay up to date with the latest developments and scientific findings in this rapidly advancing field of study.

The portal, “Sea Level Change: Observations from Space,” is online at:

https://sealevel.nasa.gov/

The portal’s key features include:

- “Understanding Sea Level,” a summary of decades of scientific research that has shaped our knowledge of sea level rise: its causes, including a warming, expanding ocean and melting ice on land; projections of future sea level rise; and ways in which humanity might adapt, largely drawn from NASA data.

- An interactive data analysis tool, launching in mid-2016, that will allow direct access to NASA datasets on sea level. Users will be able to manipulate these datasets to automatically generate charts, graphs and maps of sea surface height, temperature and other factors. The analysis tool will also allow users to make forecasts of future conditions, as well as “hindcasts” -- retroactive calculations of past trends and conditions.

- News highlights and feature stories with strong visual elements that explore the findings of sea level researchers in detail.

- An extensive library of published papers on sea level-related topics, hyperlinked to individual citations throughout “Understanding Sea Level.”

- A multimedia section with dynamic still and video imagery, and a glossary of sea level terms.

- A “frequently asked questions” section maintained by sea level scientists. Users can submit questions to scientists and data managers.

The website is optimized for most mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2425/

[AbruptSLR]

Humans are already responsible for 2/3rds of SLR, and we have yet started experiencing rapid ice melt contributions:

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/pollution-key-driver-late-20th-century-sea-rise-20232

Extract: "New computer modeling has shown that human influences were responsible for two-thirds of sea level rise from 1970 to 2005. By contrast, natural forces were responsible for about two-thirds of the rise in sea levels detected from 1900 to 1950."

See also:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160412-ice-sheet-collapse-antarctica-sea-level-rise/

[Greenbelt]

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/04/12/405089.htm

RIMS 2016: Sea Level Rise Will Be Worse and Come Sooner
By Don Jergler | April 12, 2016
Margaret Davidson, NOAA’s senior advisor for coastal inundation and resilience science and services, and Michael Angelina, executive director of the Academy of Risk Management and Insurance, offered their take on climate change data in a conference session titled “Environmental Intelligence: Quantifying the Risks of Climate Change.”

RIMS16_conference
Davidson said recent data that has been collected but has yet to be made official indicates sea levels could rise by roughly 3 meters by 2050-2060, far higher and quicker than current projections. Until now most projections have warned of seal level rise of up to 4 feet by 2100.

...

Davidson said recent data that has been collected but has yet to be made official indicates sea levels could rise by roughly 3 meters or 9 feet by 2050-2060, far higher and quicker than current projections. Until now most projections have warned of seal level rise of up to 4 feet by 2100.

These new findings will likely be released in the latest sets of reports on climate change due out in the next few years.

“The latest field data out of West Antarctic is kind of an OMG thing,” she said.

[AbruptSLR]

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/04/12/405089.htm

Davidson said recent data that has been collected but has yet to be made official indicates sea levels could rise by roughly 3 meters by 2050-2060, far higher and quicker than current projections. Until now most projections have warned of seal level rise of up to 4 feet by 2100.

The linked 2014 Climate Central article provides a rough idea of what impact a 3m SLR by 2050 would have on the lower 48 US States:

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-with-10-feet-of-sea-level-rise-17428

Extract: "More than half of the area of 40 large cities (population over 50,000) is less than 10 feet above the high tide line, from Virginia Beach and Miami (the largest affected), down to Hoboken, N.J. (smallest). Twenty-seven of the cities are in Florida, where one-third of all current housing sits below the critical line — including 85 percent in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Each of these counties is more threatened than any whole state outside of Florida – and each sits on bedrock filled with holes, rendering defense by seawalls or levees almost impossible.
By the metric of most people living on land less than 10 ft above the high tide line, New York City is most threatened in the long run, with a low-lying population count of more than 700,000. Sixteen other cities, including New Orleans, La.; Norfolk, Va.; Stockton, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Jacksonville, Fla.; are on the list of places with more than 100,000 people below the line. (Much of New Orleans is already below sea level, but is protected at today’s level by levees.)"

See also:
http://www.climatecentral.org/what-we-do/our-programs/sea-level-rise

[Shared Humanity]

Below is a map of the geology of South Florida. Dade and Broward Counties, where most of residents live, sits over a large oolite formation. The other image is a sample of this rock.

[Sigmetnow]

Here's the image of the Florida rock that shocked me.

[Sigmetnow]

Sinking Atlantic Coastline Meets Rapidly Rising Seas

Geological changes along the East Coast are causing land to sink along the seaboard. That’s exacerbating the flood-inducing effects of sea level rise, which has been occurring faster in the western Atlantic Ocean than elsewhere in recent years.

New research using GPS and prehistoric data has shown that nearly the entire coast is affected, from Massachusetts to Florida and parts of Maine.

Land subsidence and sea level rise are worsening flooding in Annapolis, Md., and elsewhere along the East Coast.

The study, published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, outlines a hot spot from Delaware and Maryland into northern North Carolina where the effects of groundwater pumping are compounding the sinking effects of natural processes. Problems associated with sea level rise in that hot spot have been — in some places — three times as severe as elsewhere.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/sinking-atlantic-coastline-meets-rapidly-rising-seas-20247

[AbruptSLR]

The linked article entitled " No Way to Slow Down: Silence Howling in Antarctica", was written by Dr Ricky Rood, a professor at Michigan U, and the notes come from the recent climate change course that he taught and focuses on the irreversible ice mass loss from the WAIS:
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/RickyRood/no-way-to-slow-down-silence-howling-in-antarctica
Extract: "

* It will be difficult to avoid a world that is four degrees warmer.
* We have, in fact, underestimated the impacts of warming.
* We have some control over how fast and how far the warming will go.
* We are committed to irreversible changes, for example, sea-level rise.
* We can “cope” with this. We must. There is opportunity.
…
I felt that one of the most defining new science-based results was the evidence of loss of some of the West Antarctic Glaciers."

[Sigmetnow]

Miami-Dade flooding to increase as engineers start identifying miles of risky U.S. coast

> New study projects up to eight times as much flooding in county by 2045

> Based on most recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projections

> Corps to assess risks on 10,000 miles of vulnerable shoreline

With sea rise projections growing ever grimmer — the latest predicts up to eight times as much flooding around Miami-Dade County by 2045 — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has launched an ambitious plan to come up with a comprehensive assessment of risks that could easily run into the billions of dollars.

Covering 10,000 miles of vulnerable shoreline from North Carolina to Mississippi, the study for the first time tries to unify what has so far been a patchwork of sea rise assessments.
...
In the most recent study of South Florida sea rise, researchers with the Union of Concerned Scientists used the Corps’ revised 2015 calculations for sea rise and found that far more swaths of Miami-Dade County will flood than under a projection they developed only a year earlier with more conservative estimates. The group focused on five cities — Miami, Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, Hialeah and Coral Gables — and found the number of projected floods rose from 45 a year to 80 with a 10-inch rise in sea levels by 2030.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article72070677.html

[sidd]

Why, clearly, we have identified the source of the problems.

Studies cause problems. In the last thirty years, every time scientists and engineers have looked at the situation, they have found future problems. We would be much happier if they had not, after all, what have the coming generations done for us ?

[AbruptSLR]

Why, clearly, we have identified the source of the problems.

Studies cause problems. In the last thirty years, every time scientists and engineers have looked at the situation, they have found future problems. We would be much happier if they had not, after all, what have the coming generations done for us ?

And now just so that everyone will have enough to eat, the "studies" want us all to become vegan.  Forget future generations, why should meat eaters make an effort just so that those already living can stay alive?

http://www.carbonbrief.org/feeding-the-world-can-we-preserve-forests-go-organic-and-eat-meat

[opensheart]

I'm afraid someday many of the powers that be will follow that logic.   
Stop measuring or keeping track of climate change.
Destroy all records.   Slience those who know too much.

What ever the future climate becomes
 that is the way it always was...

Someday the surviving humans will have to do an archaeological dig to discover the climate was once very different.   And they will have to  come up with their own explanations.   
"Those ancient people must have done something really bad for the gods to have curse them so."   A second fall from the garden of Eden perhaps?

[DoomInTheUK]

opensheart - I would agree with that with one caveat. When the moving baseline issue moves too fast, it can't be hidden. We're already in a state of change whereby people are noticing that things aren't like they used to be. As we get further down this path the rate of change will increase.
Soon it will be impossible to hide it as major changes will be on a decadal timescale, and I have socks older than that!
Once you start getting over half a meter of sea level rise per year, it's a bit tricky to pass it off as normal.

I suppose you can wait until everyone is dead that remembers when the world wasn't in a constant state of flux, and so now change is the new normal. But society doesn't do well with change like that, so I don't think there will be that many people left to govern.

[AbruptSLR]

Per the attached AVISO plot & the following AVISO data (with sea level change on the plot in centimeters and the data in meters) through February 12 2016, after a brief dip, sea level increased to an all time high:

2016.006339 8.136694e-02
2016.033487 8.215760e-02
2016.060634 8.362668e-02
2016.087782 8.522942e-02
2016.114929 8.662768e-02

[Lennart van der Linde]

They say 3.37 mm/yr from 1993-2015.
Do they also give the averages over 1993-2004 and 2004-2015? Or even over intervals of 5-6 yrs?
It would be good to know if and how much acceleration can be observed on such short timescales.

[S.Pansa]

The trend for the Jason-2 time period from ~2009 - today is +4.4mm/yr it seems. You can get it from here

[AbruptSLR]

The following image also comes from the link provided by S.Pansa; indicating to me that satellite performance can degrade with the age of the satellite, making me lean towards the Jason-2 measurements:

[RaenorShine]

And so it begins....

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/10/five-pacific-islands-lost-rising-seas-climate-change

Five Pacific islands lost to rising seas as climate change hits

Six more islands have large swaths of land, and villages, washed into sea as coastline of Solomon Islands eroded and overwhelmed

Five tiny Pacific islands have disappeared due to rising seas and erosion, a discovery thought to be the first scientific confirmation of the impact of climate change on coastlines in the Pacific, according to Australian researchers.

[AbruptSLR]

The attached U of Colorado SLR plot (edited on May 6 2016) shows that the sea level has fluctuated back up to close to its El Nino peak:

[sidd]

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/abrupt_sea_level_rise_realistic_greenland_antarctica/2990/

has a quote from DeConto

"We’re talking about centimeters per year. That’s really tough. At that point your engineering can’t keep up; you’re down to demolition and rebuilding"

He forgot to insert "cleanup" in there between demolition and rebuilding. This will be a huge effort, civil engineering and hydrology are the careers for the next century. It is a losing battle, but rich cities like NY will spend billions on it.

sidd

[AbruptSLR]

The linked article (& associated map) addresses the changes in sea level (in meters) from March 3 to April 2 2016 as measured by Sentinel-3a (red is positive & blue is negative).

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36255957

[RaenorShine]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-36299541

Billion people face global flooding risk by 2060, charity warns

A British aid charity is warning that by 2060 more than a billion people worldwide will live in cities at risk of catastrophic flooding as a result of climate change.

A study by Christian Aid says the US, China and India are among the countries most threatened.

[DoomInTheUK]

The attached U of Colorado SLR plot (edited on May 6 2016) shows that the sea level has fluctuated back up to close to its El Nino peak:

I know it borders on cherry-picking, but that graph certainly looks like it has a worrying kink around 2011. I'll give it a few more years before I get excited, but it's certainly another thing on my list of 'things to keep an eye on'.

[AbruptSLR]

The attached U of Colorado SLR plot (edited on May 6 2016) shows that the sea level has fluctuated back up to close to its El Nino peak:

I know it borders on cherry-picking, but that graph certainly looks like it has a worrying kink around 2011. I'll give it a few more years before I get excited, but it's certainly another thing on my list of 'things to keep an eye on'.

As noted in Reply #571 since 2009 the Jason-2 observations show a trend for SLR with a slope of +4.4 mm/yr; which does looks like a bifurcation to me.

[crandles]

2010/11 had quite strong La Nina and recent very stong El Nino could make it important to adjust for ENSO if you are going to use a short trend like from 2010 onward. 2009/10 did have an El Nino making 2009 a good bit better but still looks to be some scope for ENSO to be distorting short trend values.

[Laurent]

All the values you are writing which are in the range of mm are average year averaged on ten years is it ?
Because as AbruptSLR posted the average year is more of the centimetre kind.
ftp://ftp.aviso.oceanobs.com/pub/oceano/AVISO/indicators/msl/MSL_Serie_MERGED_Global_IB_RWT_GIA_Adjust.txt

[DoomInTheUK]

@Laurent - there's too much noise to take any period much less than 10 years. Yes, that does mean that if the rate is increasing (and it almost certainly is) then the trend rate will be low.

I think we can be pretty confident that in another 10 years the trend will be above 4.4, but the trend really does need to be that long to help remove the noise.

[Laurent]

I do not say it is wrong just that we tend to say it is the average for this or this year, but it is not, it is the average year averaged on ten year which should be mentioned because a layman would think it is the average year which is not ! That is important to be precise for public communication but more importantly if we want to have an idea where we are heading that does not fit a fair estimation. I agree with you we need that ten year averaged but something is missing, we should find something, I don't know what... ?

[DoomInTheUK]

I think the confusion comes with the term "Trend".

I've just had several goes at:

a) defining where the issue lies.
b) wondering what I'm talking about.

Maybe we could settle on the use of yearly-average and trend-average to help distinguish between the two.

[Laurent]

yearly average sounds good for the name !
But not enough, as you say it the yearly average is what we use but just it doesn't define the trend when there is so much difference between the yearly average and the year average. That difference is not only the noise as you said it. There is a trend that we do not catch here, and it is what the people want to know, they are trusting on specialists, so should we go on as it is... I don't think so. May be it is too complex to describe so that should be said regularly (to the public).

[DoomInTheUK]

The trouble with a yearly rate is that it can change quite a lot. If we said that 2017 had an increase of only 2 mm, the public might think it's all OK. 2018 might then 'rebound' with 6 mm and everyone expects us to be under water in the next 5 years.

The problem is that we're trying to smooth (trend) a bumpy curve (yearly values). The end of the curve (i.e. current yearly rate) will almost always be higher than the smoothed value.

There again, almost no-one seems to care anyway. I've even been told, you can't be that accurate as waves are bigger than 4 mm so it doesn't matter.

Life would be so much easier without the general public.

[Laurent]

Yes, the public wish for a stable economy (that is totally normal) and the blindness that follow must be slightly (to say the least) be shaken. I think the problem is that we use the past to say the trend but the tools that we are using to determine the trend are obsolete, they do not fit. That is the problem, no scientist alone, should take the burden of putting forward something closer to the reality, but any scientist can push for something different, the linear thinking is over. A consensus should emerge fast !

[Laurent]

Coastal Flooding Will Hit World’s Biggest Polluters Hardest
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/biggest-polluters-climate-change-flooding_us_573a007ee4b08f96c183b311?ir=Green&section=us_green&utm_hp_ref=green

[sidd]

is it just me, or have fluctuations around the mean trend increased in sea level rise ? Some of those represnt huge transfers of water from sea to and from land thru precip events. I keep thinking of phase transitions, critical slowdowns, and increased correlation length/duration but i cant quite put my finger on it.

[AbruptSLR]

is it just me, or have fluctuations around the mean trend increased in sea level rise ? Some of those represnt huge transfers of water from sea to and from land thru precip events. I keep thinking of phase transitions, critical slowdowns, and increased correlation length/duration but i cant quite put my finger on it.

I think that the fluctuations are probably getting greater, both because El Ninos and La Nina events are becoming more extreme and because global warming is bifurcating away from a linear trend line.

[DoomInTheUK]

Also don't forget that Sea Level Rise is as chaotic as global warming. Just as we see the Arcrtic warm much faster than the rest of the world, then sea level rise will affect some places a lot quicker/harder than others.

Very few places will experience the 'average' rise for either temperature or sea level rise.

[Laurent]

Australia to Lay Off Leading Scientist on Sea Levels
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/world/australia/australia-to-lay-off-leading-scientist-on-sea-levels.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

SYDNEY — A pre-eminent scientist in the field of rising global sea levels has been given notice of his dismissal as part of deep cuts at Australia’s national science agency that will reduce the country’s role in global climate research.

The scientist, John Church, confirmed Tuesday that he was one of 275 scientists whom the agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or Csiro, said would be laid off.

[Sigmetnow]

An ancient city, now hidden beneath the waves off the coast of Tanzania.

The Atlantis of Africa May Be Hiding Near a New Private Island Retreat
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-26/the-lost-city-of-rhapta-may-have-been-discovered-near-thanda-island

[Dundee]

If you are in the mood for irony, look carefully at the coral in the "underwater look at the north wall" in the Bloomberg article referred by Sigmetnow.

Look like anything published recently re: the Great Barrier Reef?

[Sigmetnow]

A Tax On Rising Sea Levels Is Making Waves In The San Francisco Bay
The regional tax would help all the communities around the Bay lower their risk of flooding by restoring wetlands. Can everyone work together to make it happen?

Developers and corporations do have a clear interest in these plans. A report by the San Francisco Public Press found at least $21 billion in housing and commercial developments, including tech campuses, the new stadium for the Golden State Warriors, and San Francisco’s ferry terminal will be vulnerable to flooding over the next century, as sea-level rise pushes flood waters from storms up to eight feet above today’s high-tide line.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3060581/a-tax-on-rising-sea-levels-is-making-waves-in-the-san-francisco-bay

[Sigmetnow]

Bay Area Voters Agreed To First-Of-Its Kind Climate Adaptation Tax

The Bay Area has long been a bastion of environmental action, but this week locals outdid themselves when they approved an unprecedented, first-of-its kind tax to remove pollution from their bay and create habitats to fight sea level rise.

With more than 65 percent approval, Measure AA is the first region-wide local tax San Francisco Bay voters have passed, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Aside from pollution removal projects, the tax will fund nature-based flood protections through wetlands, and habitat restoration along the Bay’s edge and creeks. In doing so, it will nearly double the 40,000 acres of tidal marsh that remain there. The San Francisco Bay area had 200,000 acres of wetlands before the gold rush kicked off development.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/06/09/3786580/bay-area-sea-level-rise-tax-approved/

[AbruptSLR]

The linked article discusses how recent massive storms are washing city pollution into the oceans.  Can you image the impact on the oceans when we combine abrupt SLR together with more frequent/intense future storms.  Every coastal city and port in the world might pump massive amounts of debris and pollution directly into the ocean within a few short decades.  If/when such a thing happens we will learn to our communal regret just how dependent on the oceans were are for life support:

https://theconversation.com/massive-storms-are-pumping-pollution-into-our-oceans-time-to-clean-up-our-cities-60551

Extract: "Stormwater is a mixture of rain and any dissolved or solid pollutants carried along with it. The excess water flowing along streets and gutters picks up litter, oil and grease, and metals. Run-off from parks and gardens introduces fertilisers, pathogens, pesticides and soil.

In Sydney Harbour it has been estimated that more than two-thirds of the pollutants entering the waterway do so via stormwater drains, creating hotspots of pollution with concentrations 20 times higher than natural levels. More than 80% of the city’s catchment is covered by concrete, increasing the volumes of stormwater run-off.

When stormwater reaches a waterway it represents a significant ecological risk. Together with international colleagues, we have been investigating the impact of stormwater pollution on ecological communities large and small, including changes to the number of species, nutrient cycling, and the release of toxic compounds such as ammonia, nitrous oxide and hydrogen sulphide."

Edit: Just think how much city debris the Fukushima tsunami pulled into the Pacific Ocean from just one event.

[Sigmetnow]

The linked article discusses how recent massive storms are washing city pollution into the oceans.  ...

Also, severe storms can cause raw or partially-treated sewage to be discharged into the ocean from overloaded sanitary sewer systems.  From the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane thread:


St. Petersburg Pumping Sewage into Bay as Tropical Storm Colin Flooding Continues
Flooding from Tropical Storm Colin is quite literally making a mess of the Tampa Bay area.

St. Petersburg officials told the Associated Press that the city will be pumping partially treated sewage into the bay after rainwater infiltrated leaky sewer pipes and overloaded the system. According to the National Weather Service, much of the Tampa Bay area still had standing water as of Wednesday morning.

St. Petersburg Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley said the sewage will be pumped by pipe about a quarter of a mile into the bay, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been notified of the discharge.
...
Lowe said residents and businesses should not takes showers or baths, do laundry, wash dishes or engage in "any other use of water that enters the sanitary sewer system."

https://weather.com/safety/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-colin-flooding-impacts-news

[Sigmetnow]

In 100 Years, $77 Billion Worth Of San Francisco Property Could Be Underwater
Rethinking a city for new coastlines that don't exist yet
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3060770/in-100-years-77-billion-of-san-francisco-property-could-be-underwater