How will tidal pumps affect water quality in Miami?

MIAMI, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Miami Beach recently installed a series of high power pumps to keep king tides -- the highest of high tides, sometimes called spring tides -- from flooding city streets. On Thursday, residents got to see those pumps in action as the seasonal high tide peaked. As waters rose, thoroughfares remained dry.

But while especially high tides in Miami currently happen just a few times a year, a litany of new reports -- including one published this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists -- suggest tidal flooding will become increasingly frequent as global warming pushes sea levels higher. As such, researchers are concerned over the potential environmental consequences of continuously pumping floodwater back into the ocean.

"The big question is how these high tides are impacting the water quality in the bay," Jeff Absten told the Miami Herald. Absten is the field coordinator for a new project at Florida International University -- one which will have researchers and students from the school's Southeast Environmental Research Center looking at the environmental and ecological effects of pumping storm water back to where it came from.

"We're probably going to see degraded water in the bay because they're not pumping out clean water, for sure," Absten added.

"You have this built environment that they're focusing on protecting, and you can understand that," Chris Sinigalliano, an NOAA microbiologist helping test for microbes in the water, told the Herald. "If your sole goal was to keep the city from flooding, you accomplished that. But I'm not sure that would be the only goal."

Flood and storm waters are frequently dirtied as they mix with sewage runoff, trash and other pollutants. Such water is often implicated in the spread of disease, and can be detrimental to local marine life. Of course, Miami isn't the only place with tidal flooding issues, nor storm water pollution. Pumps or no pumps, a number of coastal cities will need to address some of these vexing environmental problems as king tides become the new normal.