Saltwater Intrusion In Delaware. It’s here. It’s real. What will we do about it? An award-worthy three-part series in, where else, Spotlight Delaware. Reported by Maddy Lauria:
‘Coal Mine Canaries’ of climate change:
“With sea level rise increasing every year, the salinity levels are also increasing now to the point where the freshwater is not enough to push it back, and those sea-level fens are now salt marshes,” he said. “And all the rare plants they supported are locally extinct, or extirpated, from Delaware.”
Each year, sea level measured at Lewes has risen by about 3.77 millimeters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But from 2004 to 2023, that rate has nearly doubled, to about 7 millimeters per year. Future sea level rise projections, which vary depending on whether anything is done to curb human impacts on the climate, show the area could see at least another foot or more of sea level rise by mid-century.
When McAvoy last visited the Cherry Walk site, most of the rare plants that wowed him decades ago were long gone. Invasive phragmites have sprouted in a small, bleak army of tan reeds along the edges, indicating disturbance and a loss of native plants.
“We’re losing a habitat and a plant community that I think was probably more widespread in the state than it was when we first started to find these communities,” McAvoy said. “Part of our natural heritage is gone.”
Kent County uses balancing act to minimize saltwater impact–for now:
Some of Delaware’s most fertile farmland is found along the state’s eastern coastline, where rising tides and increasingly strong storms threaten to bring saltwater farther and farther inland.
That’s why, in recent years, the City of Dover has engineered a solution to its drinking water needs by coordinating with area farmers and pulling freshwater from different underground aquifers on a seasonal basis.
The balancing act is needed because the city’s natural supply is shared with other users, like farmer Paul Cartanza, who tends to hundreds of acres of farmland on the outskirts of Little Creek.
If the city pumps too much water from the underground aquifer, it could leave less freshwater for the farmers’ irrigation systems. Or worse, if multiple wells are drawing from the same source, it can increase the risk that saltwater from the nearby Delaware Bay gets pulled in, too.
“We had made a change to our operations so that we wouldn’t take water out of that aquifer during farmers’ growing season, even though that’s kind of the same point in time that the city needs a lot of water because people irrigate their lawns and have their own personal gardens,” explained Jason Lyon, the city’s director of public works who manages drinking water resources.
Rising saltwater and industrial pollutants could mix–toxically–in NCC:
If saltwater reaches hidden stores of arsenic or other chemicals found at polluted sites along northern Delaware’s waterways, it’s possible that a chemical reaction could cause those contaminants to mobilize in the water.
And anyone who’s aware of Delaware’s industrial roots knows that there’s no lack of contaminated sites along New Castle County’s waterways.
“Decades ago, there were no regulations on how you dispose of these things,” said Holly Michael, director of the Delaware Environmental Institute and a professor at the University of Delaware who has been studying saltwater intrusion threats statewide for years.
Michael has co-authored research exploring what would happen when rising water levels reach toxic sites or other places it hasn’t reached before.
“With rising sea level, the groundwater levels are rising, too,” she noted.
Those increasingly wet conditions, combined with salt, can create havoc for habitats as well as key infrastructure like drinking water facilities or industrial piping.
For substances that are bound to soil sediments, like arsenic, chemical reactions that occur when saltwater is mixed in can dislocate those toxins and allow them to travel wherever the water goes. While scientists have flagged the threat, what it means locally for the environment and public health remains to be seen.
Essential reporting. Incisive. In-depth. I’m speaking to the converted, I know. But, if you haven’t subscribed, why haven’t you?
The Department of Homeland Security’s tasteless holiday shitposting may have just violated the United States Constitution.
The federal agency’s official X account published multiple posts Thursday that appeared to violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another.
“Rejoice America, Christ is born!” read one post containing a video montage of snowy scenery complete with a choir singing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
“Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” read another post.
The post also included a video montage that was clearly meant to evoke nostalgia, but it was more off-putting than anything else. The video featured archival footage of Donald Trump spliced into clips from popular holiday movies. It even included a photograph of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem holding a Christmas tree in Chicago, where she launched a deadly large-scale immigration operation, to really put the eerie in cheery.
…By Beating Up A Pastor In Maine:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ by aggressively detaining a pastor.
Multiple agents in tactical gear can be seen in a video arguing with a man in his car on a video taken on Christmas Eve in Lewiston, Maine.
“Are you a U.S. citizen?” one of the agents asks the man.
The man, who appears to be of Black African origin, tries to reply. “When you came—”
“Stop talking!” the officer yells back.
“You asked me my ID and I showed you ID, I’m not this one you are looking for, so how so?” the man responded.
“Are you in this country illegally?”
“No, I’m not illegally here,” he responded, while the person filming vouched for him. That wasn’t enough for the agents, as they dragged the man out of his car and onto the ground, cuffing him.
“He’s a pastor, he’s a pastor!” the bystander protests. “You’re beating a pastor!”
“Not in this state,” one of the agents replied while leading the man away.
You’ve seen the ICE recruitment ads. These agents are resentful white thugs legitimized by a fascist regime.
What do you want to talk about?