Water Problems In High Springs Again
December 6, 2018
Drinking water is not something we want to have to worry about. We have always assumed we have a right to clean water, and when something goes wrong there, we feel our rights have been violated.
Clean drinking water is a serious thing.
Read the original article here from WFUF.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Untold Florida: Officials Are Actively Working To Improve Water Quality In High Springs
By Savannah Hill
December 5, 2018 Untold Florida: Your Neighborhood, Your Story
Dawn Mayberry has lived in High Springs for six years and never drinks the water or allows her family to bath in it.
“The water smells like bleach as soon as you turn it on,” Mayberry said. “My family’s skin is itchy and dry after taking a shower.”
Mayberry said her 3-year-old daughter had severe diarrhea after drinking bath water while playing in the tub. Mayberry now bathes her daughter at her mother’s home in Newberry.
Rodney Hoffman, High Springs Water Operator and Utility Superintendent, said the city responds to all water concerns and takes them very seriously.
In February, High Springs replaced a major pipeline that was causing problems, primarily from frequent bursts due to age. Hoffman said since replacing the pipeline, issues with water have improved substantially.
“In the past, High Springs has had issues with water contaminants,” Hoffman said. “We’ve implemented new measures to reduce contaminants and it has really been helping.”
Hoffman explained that High Springs is now adding small amounts of hydrogen peroxide to purify the water.
Despite these changes, High Springs still receives its fair share of boil water notices. Sharon Tugman, owner of Secret Garden Bakery, said boil water notices hurt local businesses. Boiling water every time she needs it for baking or running the restaurant is time consuming, she said.
Hoffman explained that boil water notices don’t necessarily mean the water is contaminated.
“Most commonly, a boil water advisory is used after a pipe bursts to ensure that no contaminants made their way in the line as a result of the burst pipe,” he said.
However, the problem is not limited to the boil water notices.
Heather Melendez said her well water is crystal clear and odor free, but her neighbors on city water often complain about the color and smell.
Hoffman said a variety of factors can go into creating discolored, odorous water. Sometimes, Hoffman said, residents move into a home that hasn’t been occupied in over a year and the water has been stagnant.
“Just like anything, if water sits, it starts to get a weird smell,” Hoffman said.
Color and odor are considered secondary contaminants that don’t impact water safety, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
But, Russell Simpson, the FDEP Northeast District Ombudsman, said High Springs has certainly encountered water safety concerns in the past, specifically with disinfection byproducts (DBP), contaminants used to disinfect water.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that byproducts of water disinfection have been linked to an increase in cancer incidents. It is for this reason that the EPA sets limits for disinfection byproducts.
The state sets maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for disinfection byproducts. High Springs was in violation of all state levels set for disinfection byproducts in 2016, but improved to just one violation in 2017.
City water exceeded the state’s maximum contamination level for Trihalomethane (TTHM) by 28.01 parts per billion (ppb) in 2016 and by 15.13 ppb in 2017.
It also exceeded the state’s maximum level for Haloacetic Acid (HAA5) by 23.94 ppb in 2016, but brought the average within legal levels in 2017.
The 2018 report has not been released yet.
Simpson stressed High Spring’s efforts to clean up the water are working.
“The changes they have implemented are decreasing the levels, and the system is now meeting the standards,” he said.
High Springs is also collecting more water samples and working with the FDEP to ensure the public remains notified of all results, Simpson added. These samples test for any possible contaminants in the water, and with more testing, High Springs is able to better respond to potential concerns.
While residents like Mayberry still don’t trust High Spring’s water to be safe, officials continue to assure residents that their drinking water quality is steadily improving.
“If you don’t feel safe drinking your water after a boil water notice, wait a few days,” Hoffman said. “If you still don’t feel safe after that, then call us and we’ll come out and take a look.”
Another Spill In Valdosta
December 6, 2018
Valdosta has been blamed many times in recent years for wastewater spills which head downstream to Florida. Just recently a new water treatment system was put into place, which has worked well except for a couple of human error slip ups. It was also seen that some of the bacterial contamination going into the river was likely from horse farms upstream from Valdosta, and not from the water treatment plant. The latest spill, described below, was simply a case of inability to handle the volume of input, indicating the plant was not designed to handle what was needed.
There are just too many problems with the Valdosta water treatment plant. For all their efforts, the result is that we continue to have spills into the river.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Spill In Valdosta Due to Heavy Rains
Published on behalf of the City of Valdosta
Over the weekend, the City of Valdosta and surrounding areas received more than 11 inches of rain during a storm event. During the storm, city infrastructure operated as designed. The Withlacoochee Plant is designed to have a normal capacity of 13.5 million gallon (MG) per day with a peak average flow of 22.5 MG per day. In addition to that capacity the city has also installed a surge tank to accept additional flows. As a result of unprecedented rainfall into the plant, the structures were overwhelmed. The current system has four processing units, although during normal operations the system only requires one. During this storm event, the Withlacoochee Plant was running all four units plus the excess flow equalization basin.
On December 2, at approximately 6 p.m., the City of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant identified a sewage spill. The spill was caused by the large amounts of rainfall received within a 24-hour period, which resulted in stormwater infiltration and inflow entering the sanitary sewer system and exceeding the capacity of the system.
During the storm the water spilled onto the city plant property, which is located over one and a half miles away from the banks of the Withlacoochee River, as well as into a nearby waterway. While the WWTP has a normal average daily flow of 3.5 million gallons (MG), this past weekend, the influent flow peaked at more than 32 MG—ten times the normal rate. Unfortunately, we will not be able to get an accurate number of gallons spilled until the water recedes from the plant.
Sewer spills are not acceptable at any time. It has been the city’s top priority to prevent them all through the construction of the new WWTP and the Force Main, as well as the Lift Station Rehab Program, Smoke Testing Program, Annual Manhole Rehab Program, and the ongoing River Sampling Program that tests waters before, during and after major rain events.
The city continues its ongoing efforts to improve the infrastructure of the sewer system to eliminate these issues in the future. Improving our sewer system has and will continue to be a main priority. For more information, contact the Utilities Department Environmental Manager Scott Fowler at 229-259-3592 or [email protected].
No Changes in Bradford Board
December 6, 2018 Commissioners Thompson and Riddick are sworn in by Judge Tatum Davis.
The mid-term elections did not change the make-up of the Bradford County Board of Commissioners, as commissioners Riddick and Thompson were re-elected for four more years. Frank Durrance became the chair, and Chris Dougherty the vice chair.
Although the phosphate mine was not on the agenda, Carol Mosley and your historian spoke against it. Kate Ellison was present but arrived a bit late to speak.
The water abatement plan for increasing the flow of the Sampson River and Alligator Creek was on the agenda in a routine fashion, with the emergency resolutions being approved for its continuation.
The December meeting of the Suwannee River Water Management District will take place in Starke on Dec. 11, with a workshop to follow afterward with a tour of the project. The meeting will be held in the Governor Charley Johns Conference Center at 1610 N. Temple Ave. at 9 am.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Education is Prime
December 6, 2018 Rhonda Long works the booth in Gainesville on Sat.
Our hard-working OSFR volunteers are out in the trenches, rain or shine, at the down-town Gainesville Art show, Saturday (wet) and Sunday. Thanks to Kristin Rubin, Rhonda Long, Kathy Fleming, Cathy Messersmith and Natalie Wright.
Alas, the storm destroyed the OSFR tent, but all was saved when Danielle from LifeSouth.org generously loaned us a tent and we were back in business. Thank you Danielle and LifeSouth.
Below is the resuscitated tent for Sunday, Dec. 2. Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back- Seasons Greeting From OSFR
December 6, 2018
Best Holiday wishes 2018 from President Mike, our Board, our Advisors, , our Webmaster Susan, our Historian and all our great volunteers. We are happy and blessed with many things, not the least of which is we still have a river to protect.
Multiple Important Lessons Learned Here
December 6, 2018
Multiple lessons of importance can be learned from the following article here hidden away in the Citrus County Chronicle.
One is that corporations or municipalities which have toxic waste material they want to dispose of, will not blink an eye when faced with trucking it hundreds of miles away. Lesson here is that a ban on fracking, biosolids disposal, or other toxic operations must also include a ban on toxic waste disposal, an integral part of the operation.
Another thing exposed here is the manner of operation of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Perhaps because the DEP customarily gives better protection to industry than the welfare if Florida’s citizens, they did not bother to consult or alert Citrus County authorities about the small matter of 30,000 tons of arsenic-tainted sludge headed for their county. County officials learned of this plan through the Citrus County Chronicle.
Does this not remind us of the monster Mosaic sinkhole, news of which came through a Tampa TV station and not our DEP?
The third and most important lesson here is power of home rule: that the Citrus County Commissioners had the gumption, foresight and integrity to represent their constituents and exert the power invested in them by their position as county leaders. They did their job even though it meant saying no to industrial corporations and our industry-loving DEP.
Cheers to the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back- City says its sludge will bypass Citrus County
Mike Wright Nov 28, 2018 Updated Nov 28, 2018
The city of Fort Myers says toxic sludge will not be sent to the LafargeHolcim quarry north of Crystal River.
Faced with a potential legal fight with Citrus County over a large pile of toxic sludge, the city of Fort Myers has said it will truck the material directly to Alabama without a stopover in Crystal River.
The city’s consultant announced the new transportation plan Wednesday and sent a flyer to residents in the Dunbar neighborhood saying the removal of sludge material would begin Thursday morning.
Prior plans, heading back to late August when the city approved the $3.2 million material removal proposal, said it would be trucked to the LafargeHolcim limestone quarry north of Crystal River, where it would be mixed with limestone and then sent by barge to Alabama.
The city’s notice to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection filed Wednesday omit Crystal River from the disposal plan.
Instead, it says the material will be loaded into trucks and transported directly to the LafargeHolcim concrete plant in Theodore, Alabama.
“The dump trucks will travel via major highways from Fort Myers to the LafargeHolcim cement plant in Theodore, Alabama,” the notice from PPM Consultants reads. “At this location, the material will be beneficially reused in the manufacturing process to make cement.”
Citrus County Administrator Randy Oliver was unaware of the latest development. A reporter sent him a copy of the flyer that was provided early Wednesday evening to the Chronicle by WINK-TV in Fort Myers.
The city posted the revised transportation plan on a DEP document webpage.
That the city’s consultant planned to truck 30,000 tons of arsenic-tainted sludge to the Crystal River facility came as a shock to Citrus County officials, who learned of it through a Chronicle story in early September.
Citrus officials contacted top DEP officials, including Secretary Noah Valenstein, who assured them the sludge disposal plan would have Citrus County’s approval before the material was trucked out of Fort Myers.
Citrus commissioners, though, were skeptical of that promise. Not only did they tell Fort Myers to keep the sludge away from the county, they authorized County Attorney Denise Dymond Lyn to file a lawsuit to stop the transport if that became necessary.
In late October, the project manager from Fort Myers, a representative of LafargeHolcim subsidiary GeoCycle, and a high- ranking DEP official all appeared before the county commission, hoping to convince commissioners that the material is safe for transport and processing at the facility north of Crystal River.
They left no further along than when they arrived.
“Our residents don’t want it. I’m going to stick to that,” Commissioner Scott Carnahan said at the time. “Find someplace else for it. You need to figure out something else because we don’t want it here.”
With the exception of Commissioner Jimmie T. Smith, the board was unified in rejecting the material regardless of review. Smith said the county should accept it if DEP approved.
The issue went silent over much of November, with Citrus officials unable to learn anything new. Oliver said shortly before Thanksgiving that a DEP official told him that the city was exploring alternatives to bringing the material to Crystal River. He had heard nothing since then.
Contact Chronicle reporter Mike Wright at 352-563-3228 or [email protected].
World’s Largest Offshore Wind Developer —
December 6, 2018
Why do we in America allow corporate greed to ruin our country and pollute it? Do we prefer poisoned soil and contaminated water? Do we love money more than health? Are we just more stupid than the rest of the world? Recent studies show that at this time energy from wind is the cheapest form available, and all sustainables are dropping in cost. Oil and coal are definitely on the obsolete list, while the U.S. remains imprisoned by the fossil fuel magnates. Not only have we have dropped out of world leadership, we have become the laughingstock of the globe. Read this article in its original form at Echo Watch. Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back- World’s Largest Offshore Wind Developer to Invest $30 Billion in Green Energy
To save the world from climate catastrophe, the world needs to urgently phase out the use of fossil fuels.
On Wednesday, Danish energy company Orsted announced a major investment program as it seeks to become one of the “renewable majors” leading a global shift away from planet-warming fuels, Reuters reported.
Orsted, which built the largest offshore wind farm on Earth, plans to invest 200 billion Danish crowns ($30.26 billion) in green energy between 2019 and 2025, the firm said.
Offshore wind projects will receive 75-85 percent of the total investment, while onshore investments will receive the remaining 15-20 percent. Bioenergy and customer solutions will constitute 0 to 5 percent of the spending.
Overall, Orsted (formerly Dong Energy) seeks to bump its share of green energy production to 99 percent by 2025, up from 64 percent in 2017.
“Today, our portfolio consists of 11.9 GW (gigawatts) of offshore and onshore wind farms and biomass-fired combined heat and power plants that are either in production, under construction or have been given final investment decision,” Henrik Poulsen, Orsted’s CEO and president, said in apress release. “Towards 2030, it’s our strategic ambition to reach an installed capacity of more than 30GW, provided that the build- out creates value for our shareholders,” he added. “As an important step, we’re raising our 2025 ambition for offshore wind from 11-12 GW to 15 GW.”
Poulsen said the global market for renewable energy is expected to more than triple towards 2030.
In September, Orsted officially opened the world’s largest offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea. The 659-megawattWalney Extension, located approximately 19 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Cumbria, England, consists of 87 turbines and is capable of generating enough renewable energy to power almost 600,000 UK homes.
Offshore wind technology is rapidly advancing, and the Walney Extension is expected to lose its “world’s largest” title to Orsted’s Hornsea Project One off the UK’s Yorkshire coast. The under-construction wind farm is expected to be fully operational by 2020 and will have a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, or enough power for more than one million UK homes.
OSFR Garage Sale POSTPONED Until Dec. 15, 16
December 6, 2018 Please continue to drop items off at Rum 138, we will accept up to the sale dates.
Please let us know if you can volunteer to help.
Saturday and Sunday, December 15 and 16, 2018,from 7 am to 3 pm, OSFR will have a fundraiser garage sale at headquarters, Rum 138, located at 2070 SW CR 138, Fort White.
We need donated items and volunteers to help with the sale. Volunteers on either day or both for this garage sale are welcome to help us too. All items accepted, large or small. Please bring items to Rum 138 on Thursday and Friday.
To continue its good work, OSFR needs funds. We have no paid workers — all are volunteers. Please help and you can rest assured you are helping to save our river. Thank you.
Biosolids: Waste to fertilizer to – pollution?
December 6, 2018
More problems associated with our waste and pollution. This is a direct connection from our biosolids disposal to toxic algae, with toxins far above the danger mark. Concerns for health issues caused by microsystins are increasing.
We should also be concerned for our neighborhood, as biosolids have been deposited near the Santa Fe River for years.
We are such slow learners where money is involved.
Read this article here in Florida Trend.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Biosolids: Waste to fertilizer to – pollution?
Blue Cypress Lake contains microcystin levels thousands of times above the amount considered hazardous to humans.
Jason Garcia | 11/28/2018 Five years ago, a ranch bordering Blue Cypress Lake began using treated waste from municipal sewage plants as a cheap source of fertilizer. Known formally as biosolids and less formally as sludge, the material has been treated to control or kill pathogens and avoid attracting insects, rodents and birds. But it also contains lots of phosphorous, which, when washed into rivers and lakes, fuels the growth of algae. Toxic blue-green algae have begun blooming in Blue Cypress Lake. Tests conducted this year by the Ocean Research & Conservation Association of Fort Pierce found that the lake’s algae contained the toxin microcystin at a rate of 4,700 parts per billion, says Edie Widder, ORCA’s founder, CEO and senior scientist. For context: The World Health Organization says recreational waters with microcystin levels above 10 parts per billion are hazardous to human health.
“So often, we have so many potential sources of pollution. But there really aren’t any out there (at Blue Cypress Lake), except the biosolids,” Widder says. “It’s such a clear-cut case because there’s nothing else out there. And since 2013, when they started spreading biosludge out there, they’ve spread more than 22,000 dry tons. Which is a staggering amount.”
Also in this article: Ocean Research & Conservation Association; Pressley Ranch; Edie Widder; George O’Connor.
Algae toxins are airborne and can reach deep into human lungs, FGCU research shows
December 6, 2018 Rick Scott’s legacy (and those of his ilk before him) is found to be worse and worse as time goes on and Florida voters send him on to lead our country.
Disheartening news below.
Read the original article here in News-Press. Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back- Algae toxins are airborne and can reach deep into human lungs, FGCU research shows
Amy Bennett Williams, Fort Myers News-Press Published 12:16 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2018 | Updated 5:07 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2018
(Photo: Mike Parsons/Special to The News-Press)
Anyone breathing near the dense blue-green algae blooms that plagued the region last summer likely inhaled some toxins deep into their lungs, FGCU research released Tuesday shows.
What’s not yet clear is what impact that exposure could have to human health, said Mike Parsons, the professor of marine science who coordinated the study. When there are outbreaks, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection samples water to check what variety of algae are present and how concentrated they are. During the recent bloom, it found one variety of blue-green algae, Microcystis aeruginosa, at levels the World Health Organization considers a high risk of affecting human health.
More: Researchers in town testing residents for exposure to algae toxins
Blue-green algae toxins, also called cyanotoxins, are some of the deadliest on the planet, “Among the most potent toxins known, far more potent than industrial chemicals,” the late Kenneth Hudnell testified to Congress in 2008. “They cause death at dosage levels in the low parts per billion range … more potent than strychnine, curare (the poison dart toxin) and sarin (a nerve gas).”
Yet unlike many other potentially dangerous substances such as insecticides, dry cleaning chemicals and heavy metals, cyanotoxins aren’t regulated. There aren’t numeric guidelines on how much is too much, said Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani. ”What dose do you have to get to be subject to risk? Does it build up in the system over time? We just don’t know (and) that’s the overarching issue. This airborne stuff is all new ground. People think, ‘Well, if I just don’t get in the water, I’ll be fine,’ but this is a bigger realm now – it’s the air you breathe.” In slow-moving or dead-end waterbodies, like Cape Coral canals, the blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria) piled up in putrid mats “so thick ducks would walk on it and iguanas run across it” Parsons said. And though the resulting stench was chokingly, eye-wateringly foul, there had been no research conclusively showing what scientists call “an airborne vector for microcystin exposure.”
FGCU’s study changed that. With a $5,000 grant from the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Parsons and his team used two $9,000 devices on loan from Yale University to detect the presence of microcystis with DNA sequencing.
They tested two spots: a Cape Coral home along the Caloosahatchee, where the bloom was intense, and at Vester Field Station in Bonita Springs, 30 miles away, where there was no bloom.
The team tested from Sept. 21 to Oct. 11, also collecting water samples before and afterward.
The devices were equipped with layered filters that mimicked the human respiratory system.
More: Algae-exposed? Researchers taking samples from people who’ve been around toxic blooms
“The way the sampler works is it has different size passages,” Parsons said, “so you have big openings on the top and then really small openings on the bottom that simulates a human lung.
“The largest pore sizes would be like the nasal passages and the mouth, then the pharynx, then down into the bronchi, then the last three pore sizes would be down in your air sacs – your alveoli … really, really tiny — smaller than bacteria (and) basically, we found microcystins in all the size fractions. They got all the way down.”
Southwest Florida volunteers take part in algae exposure study Andrew West, News-Press
But whether that rises to the level of a public health crisis is another matter, because the microcystin concentration was the same at both sites, Parsons said. “The two possibilities are: We’re just looking at a background level, or normal concentrations of microcystins in the air,” Parsons said. “Or, the other possibility is (and I’m looking at the wind data from Page Field right now) would be that the microcystins actually blew southward so you basically have a plume that made it to Vester,” which he doubts is the case, because the concentrations are the same. “That doesn’t really support that because you’d expect some sort of dilution factor.”
Parsons’ study comes on the heels of another done by Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute last month, which took samples of blood, urine and nasal secretions from volunteers to test for algal toxins.
“Our studies really complement each other,” he said. “They demonstrated that (toxins were) getting in nasal passages and in the mouth and the back of the throat. What we show is it can get way down into the lungs. So together, we basically have a story confirming that people are being exposed to this (and) it can get all the way down into the lungs.”
More: Algae once again streaks Caloosahatchee’s upper reaches, new aerial photos show
Researcher James Metcalf pulls up a sample of water from a North Fort Myers canal. He was on the Caloosahatchee researching toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) that’s been blooming in the river since June. (Photo: Amy Bennett Williams/The News-Press) As for the health effects, “That’s got to be the subject of another study,” Parsons said. “This is a pilot study — basically a demonstration project … On one hand, the results were interesting and puzzling, on the other hand I was a little relieved,” he said. “People could sue, you know, if these levels were really high, and right now, they’re not.”
However, Parsons urges residents to be careful if and when another big bloom happens.
“For caution’s sake, they may want to stay away or work to get the cyanobacteria out of their canals,” he said. “It’s probably not a good idea to be sitting there inhaling it if you’re living right on the canal. Better to be safe than sorry.”
OSFR Fundraiser Garage Sale — Sat. & Sun.
December 6, 2018 Saturday and Sunday, December 1 and 2, 2018,from 7 am to 3 pm, OSFR will have a fundraiser garage sale at headquarters, Rum 138, located at 2070 SW CR 138, Fort White.
We need donated items and volunteers to help with the sale. Volunteers on either day or both for this garage sale are welcome to help us too. All items accepted, large or small. Please bring items to Rum 138 on Thursday and Friday.
To continue its good work, OSFR needs funds. We have no paid workers — all are volunteers. Please help and you can rest assured you are helping to save our river.
Thank you. Trump Rejects New US Climate Study
December 6, 2018
How much more damage can our impaired president do by his inaction and lack of leadership regarding climate change before he leaves the White House?
Whatever the amount, it is too much and needless.
The following is from an article by CNN regarding the authors of the study:
Released Friday, the Fourth National Climate Assessment was put together with the help of 1,000 people, including 300 leading scientists, roughly half from outside the government. It comes from the US Global Change Research Program, a team of 13 federal agencies, and is the second of two volumes. The first, released in November 2017, concluded that there is “no convincing alternative explanation” for the changing climate other than “human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases.”
The flippant assessment “I don’t believe it” are the words of a fool.
Read the original article here in WINK News.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum. -A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Federal government completes 1,600-page climate change study
A new report is sounding the alarm about the predicted effects of climate change over the next century.
The 1,600-page study released by the federal government outlines devastating potential consequences from wildfires in California to massive sea level rise here in Florida.
These findings have drawn criticism from President Donald Trump.
“I don’t believe it,” Trump said. Climate expert Jim Beever said the high-profile skepticism won’t make the problem disappear.
“Belief in climate change is certainly optional, but participation is mandatory,” Beever said. “So, it doesn’t matter if you believe or not that it’s climate change. The sea level is going to rise on your waterfront property. The hurricanes are more severe and more damaging.”
Beever said the changing climate will have a major effect here in Southwest Florida. It has many people in coastal communities like Sanibel Island worried.
Beever said it’s not too late for communities to adapt by moving infrastructure to higher elevations and preparing local health departments to treat tropical diseases. Some communities such as Punta Gorda have already begun to take initiative.
Click here to view the report.