Satellite Beach increased its stormwater fee, forcing the tax collector to change a computer program to accept three-digit numbers. Low-lying parts of Tampa Bay occasionally experience flooding on sunny days during peak tides, but it will take years for that phenomenon to become more widespread and frequent. In Florida, it doesn’t only flow over seawalls but through the peninsula’s porous crust. Research shows sea level rise could continue to pick up pace. Scientists say the Earth is locked into more warming because people burn fossil fuels. Water levels have risen by fractions of an inch each year as global warming melts ice sheets and expands seawater, according to the National Ocean Service. What’s the difference between sea level rise and storm surge? Sea level rise is such a major challenge, he said, that it may force leaders in Florida to reconsider even basic concepts relating to property, development and risk - including who shoulders the cost of vulnerability long-term and how. “It’s the privatization of profits and the socialization of risks and costs.” “Who’s left with the long-term risk?” Ruppert said. Thomas Ruppert, a coastal planning specialist with Florida Sea Grant, an education and research group that works with government agencies, said builders have the luxury of perhaps a five-year horizon to finish their work, giving them better odds of getting out before a flood.
