Virtual Regional Climate Change Compact Outlines Plans/Wishes
By Meryl Davids

The 13th annual Climate Leadership Summit of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact took place on December 9 and 10, 2021. Several members of the Loxahatchee group attended the summit, which was virtual this year. Throughout the event, several representatives of the Biden Administration spoke about their commitment to reversing the climate crisis, a refreshing change from the prior administration.

One of the most optimistic points voiced by many of the local speakers is the amount of federal money state and county governments now have to apply to climate issues, thanks to the federal infrastructure bill and other legislation passed this year. “The federal money coming down is akin to the Works Project Administration dollars in the 1930s", said Palm Beach County Mayor Robert Weinroth. Some of the priorities for the money, according to Weinroth: adding resiliency to capital construction and moving forward with electric vehicles and buses. He also said the county is interested in focusing new developments more along the eastern urban corridor in order to reduce western sprawl and all the driving that necessitates.

One big problem many speakers addressed for South Florida is flood control. Our area’s drainage system relies on gravity to flush excess water down the canal system and into the ocean. As the ocean rises, water goes the wrong way, not only increasing flooding but also bringing salt water into our drinking reservoirs. Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller somberly noted that within a few years, “all of South Florida is going to be under water during heavy rains because we will not be able to drain the water.” He also said he expects this to impact home insurance premiums, which will go up as the threat of flooding does. The federal Army Corps of Engineers is not currently slated to fix this problem, and other solutions were not forthcoming.

In a session featuring several state legislators, Senator Lori Berman said she was proud of a bill recently passed requiring local governments to incorporate resilience planning 50 years out, which will include the effects of climate change. But she is also unhappy with the overall focus of the state legislature. “We’re addressing resilience, but not the source of the problem,” she said, noting that her bill mandating renewable energy use has not gained traction.
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Session on Agriculture for Climate Change Largely Misses the Mark
By Meryl Davids

The virtual Climate Leadership Summit session titled Innovation in Climate Smart Agriculture offered great promise that our county’s farmland might be part of the solution to the climate crisis. After all, climate scientists have been touting the importance of regenerative agriculture, the concept that farming in a more holistic way expands colonies of living organisms in the soil, which then absorb carbon from the atmosphere. But if environmentalists thought we might hear how our farms are moving in that direction, or about the importance of protecting existing farmland from development in order to add to our storm resilience, or whether sugar growers are exploring green harvesting instead of their smoke-belching burning methods, we were mistaken.

Ronald Rice, director of the UF/IFAS, Palm Beach County extension department and moderator of the panel, laid out the stakes when he noted agriculture is a huge industry in Florida (second only to tourism), with 47,500 farms growing snap peas, watermelon, cucumbers, sweet corn, and much more. Sadly, the panel largely focused on how farms and farmworkers are adapting to the increase in heat and storms resulting from climate change, rather than offering solutions to minimize these problems. Stephen Basore, owner of the large Belle Glade farm TKM Bengard Farms, LLC, noted that climate change has already forced his farm to shorten their growing season to avoid several hot weeks that used to be productive. That led the panelists to discuss the need to develop more heat- and storm-resistant strains of vegetables. Dr. Antonio Tovar, policy associate with the National Family Farm Coalition, also described how the increased heat puts added physical stress on farm workers.

There was a very limited discussion about conserving energy on farms. Kelley Smith Burk, director of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, described how her office is working with farms to help them audit their water and energy usage and to develop plans to try to conserve these important resources.

Several Loxahatchee group members attending the virtual session attempted to ask questions about the importance of preserving the Agricultural Reserve against the tremendous development pressure it is under, or to inquire about how changes in sugar cane burning might help the environment, but moderators did not let these questions even appear in the Q&A box until a few minutes before the session ended, so they were never answered. The moderator also did not ask the question the session’s audience upvoted the most, about the climate impact resulting from all the farmland in our area being turned into developments.

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Session on Building Back Better: Embedding Resilience in Capital Infrastructure
By Linda Smithe

Panelists:
Elizabeth Perez, PE. President of Collective Water Resources LLC
Jery Buckwalter, Chief Innovation Officer, American Society of Civil Engineers
Kristina Swallow, Director, Nevada Department of Transportation
Mario E. Loaiza, Chief Account Manager Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.
Peter Moore, President and CEO, Chen Moore and Associates

Experts were willing to speak about how deep we are in dept regarding our infrastructure. The consensus was we are behind in transportation, wastewater treatment, energy production, and stormwater conveyance. We can look forward to service disruptions, economic losses, and environmental consequences.

The panelists discussed future challenges and potential opportunities if we start acting now. Technology advancements are helping us evaluate projects with continuous simulation concerning stormwater drainage and transportation. Education is the key. Green infrastructure has been around for decades, but we have not implemented it yet. Resiliency to ensure equity must be built in; it can’t be added on at the end.

The panelists emphasized the importance of building only in the proper locations. Why? Because large companies evaluate where the are going to expand using 3 data points:

• Access to talent. Does the area have the skilled employees needed?
• Corporate tax rate (we can’t do anything about that locally).
• Quality and resiliency of infrastructure, such as commute time for workers and sea level rise. When a company expands, it plans on being there for at least 50 years.

Our system of issuing municipal bonds for big infrastructure projects are inherently flawed because there is no way to finance the operations and maintenance of the project. Currently, society will spend money on new infrastructure while allowing existing infrastructure to crumble. Everyone can appreciate building a new shiny bridge than painting an old one. There is no ribbon cutting ceremony or bronze plaque when the old bridge is painted. The public actually complains about traffic congestion with lane closures and rubber necking.

The other big issue is ‘low bid contracts’ that contractors and designers are racing to the bottom. How can we build it faster and cheaper? It costs 6 times as much to replace poor construction than to build it right the first time, yet we still rely on ‘low bid contracts’.

The more interconnected we are the more vulnerable we are. In the past, specialization created efficiencies but now we need to think across disciplines. We need to act locally but think globally.

Climate Change is creating a series of cascading events. Because wildfires are so much larger now, they cause widespread power outages, hospitals and other essential services must be shut down. Highways are closed and relief supplies can’t get through. Tomorrow’s answers must work on more than one problem.