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Miami is making the same mistake New Orleans made 100 years ago. They're trying to artificially lower their water table to improve drainage, but it creates a cy
by beerandt 5y ago
Miami is making the same mistake New Orleans made 100 years ago. They're trying to artificially lower their water table to improve drainage, but it creates a cycle of subsidence, which makes flooding worse, which makes them pump more, repeat.
They luckily don't have large organic deposits (that I'm aware of), so total subsidence will be much less than New Orleans, but same concept.
Back to your question, the pumps were probably designed or spec'd for a capacity that they are having to exceed in increasing amounts.
- freewilly1040 5y agoAre there really other options besides evacuating the city?
- mikewarot 5y agoInstead of trying to lower the water level, Chicago raised "ground level" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago
- freewilly1040 5y agoInteresting, thank you for the link!
- elihu 5y agoThat also sounds like it would pull in salt water, which as I understand it is a problem at least in Jakarta: a lot of previously fresh-water wells in the area have become salty due to ocean water seeping in to fill the void.
- beerandt 5y agoThat's for deep water drinking wells. Baton Rouge and south Louisiana are going through that now, with salt water penetrating a fault line that was once considered a barrier. The industrial corridor along the Mississippi consume an unbelievable amount of fresh water, so the same lesson might not apply to most areas. Pumping drainage and the ground water table is probably drawing salt water, but at shallow depths. Not deep enough for actual water wells.