by Patty Wight, originally posted on December 1, 2015

AUBURN, Maine — The city has detected higher-than-acceptable levels of lead in some household tap water.

Routine tests found more than double the amount detected three years ago. Auburn now joins several dozen other water systems in the state that are on increased lead monitoring.

Lead is found naturally in the environment. But when it shows up in drinking water, the contamination doesn’t typically stem from the water source. It’s from plumbing.

Auburn Water Superintendent Sid Hazelton attributes the elevated lead levels in some of his city’s households to old pipes.

“If they happen to have plumbing that was connected with lead solder, that’s the source of the lead,” he says.

Lead can cause severe physical and mental impairment when it’s ingested. Lead solder was banned back in 1986, but homes built before that are more likely to have higher lead levels in their plumbing.

When the Auburn Water District tested a sample of 44 homes, about 10 percent had lead levels of 23 parts per billion. That’s more than double the 2012 levels of 9 parts per billion, and well above the EPA threshold.

“The acceptable amount is 15 parts per billion,” Hazelton says.

Auburn is now required to increase monitoring until the lead levels decrease. Maine’s Drinking Water Program Director Roger Crouse says Maine has about 800 public water systems, ranging from municipal districts and schools to businesses. And Auburn’s lead problem is not unique.

“Currently there are about 50 or 60 systems that are on increased monitoring — elevated monitoring,” he says.

Bangor had to do elevated monitoring when it detected a sudden increase in lead levels back in 2010.

“It was a surprise,” says Dina Page, water quality manager for the Bangor Water District, which serves about a half dozen communities. She says the spike was due to a change in the city’s water treatment process. The water, she says, was too pure.

“If you have a water that’s just so devoid of anything else, then the tendency when it’s sitting in the pipe is the lead will want to leach into the water,” she says.

Add some minerals, Page says, and they act as a buffer. Bangor added sodium carbonate to its water. Five years later, Page says, the Bangor Water District has some of the lowest lead results it has ever seen.

“Right now, our results from this year are 5 parts per billion of lead,” she says.

While water systems are obligated to adjust water chemistry to minimize the chance it will absorb lead, Page says consumers should take precautions as well. The No. 1 tip?

“Letting your cold water run for three minutes anytime is has set — especially overnight,” she says. “So do that first thing in the morning before drinking or cooking.”

The longer water sits stagnant in pipes, the more lead it can absorb. Running the water a few minutes costs about a penny, Page says, and water-conscious consumers can use that time to rinse dirty dishes or recyclables.

There is, of course, the more expensive option to replace old plumbing — but Crouse says to keep in mind the lead may actually come from the faucet itself.

“It may be just that fixture at your kitchen sink that has brass that has a higher lead content than appropriate,” he says.

Crouse says there are plenty of old fixtures still in use. And for homeowners not connected to a municipal water source, Crouse says it’s a good idea to test for lead every five years.

“There’s a number of certified labs throughout the state,” he says.

Tests from certified drinking water labs cost $20-$30, says Crouse. But it’s critical to follow instructions to get a proper sample, and results.

by Francesca Washington, originally posted on October 30, 2015

TYLER, TX (KLTV) – This week, the City of Tyler informed residents of elevated levels of a compound in the city’s water source.

“The water is absolutely safe,” says Tyler Utilities Engineer Lisa Crossman.

But Tyler resident James Karolchyck says he’s not taking any chances.

“I think we’re just going to stock up on bottled water. That’s going to shoot the stock up on Evian water,” Karolchyck says.

The city issued a notice saying the city’s water had gone over the maximum level for haloacetic acid.

“The exceedance that we experienced was only 0.002 milligrams per liter over the EPA maximum contaminant level,” Crossman says.

Haloacetic acids are a byproduct of disinfection in water treatment plants.

“It’s formed when chlorine, which is what we use to remove harmful pathogens, in water reacts to naturally occurring organic material in the lakes,” Crossman says.

The notice says the water could cause those who drink it to develop cancer. But EPA studies show that an adult would have to drink a half gallon of contaminated water every day for 60 to 70 years for that to be an issue.

“I was in shock. Being a 25-year cancer survivor, I was kind of concerned about it,” Karolchyk says.

Crossman says the water is back to normal now. But from July to September the weather contaminated the water.

“When it rains those organic materials are washed into the lake. The spring had abnormally high levels of rain, and it also rained many days in a row. We’re not experiencing that level of rainfall right now,” Crossman says.

Crossman says they are making adjustments to their treatment process to minimize the formation of disinfection products and keep Tyler’s water safe to drink. City officials say if they believed the water was a health risk, they would have issued a boil water notice. They say the level of contamination was not that severe.

The City of Tyler is not being penalized by the state for the time their water was contaminated.

by Logan Layden, originally published on October 22, 2015

Oklahoma’s small water systems face a big problem: Drinking water standards are getting stricter, their treatment plants are becoming obsolete, and many cities and towns can’t get the loans and grants needed for expensive upgrades. But one Oklahoma City company says it found a potential solution — in Africa.

FROM AFRICA TO OKLAHOMA

Water4, a nonprofit based in a former chop shop in Oklahoma City, is an unusual charity. In fact, founder Richard Greenly doesn’t like being called a charity at all.

“We don’t give stuff away,” he says. “We empower people.”

He says conventional charity hasn’t solved Africa’s water access problem.

“The problem is well meaning non-profit organizations come in, and they shove the people aside, and they say, ‘we’re going to fix your problem for you,’” Greenly says. “And they bring in a million dollar drilling rig. Their water squirts out of the ground. Everybody’s cheering. Everybody gets their photo-op. The rig drives away. The nonprofit goes home. The well breaks in 11 months.”

Instead, Water4 trains locals to drill water wells and install pumps using the cheap, electricity-free method Water4’s Steve Stewart came up with.

The idea is for locals to use that knowledge to start their own water well drilling businesses that charge about a penny a gallon. That money is used to maintain and expand the business to eventually treat water and pipe it to peoples’ homes.

These tiny, private water utilities are springing up all over the continent, and provide the inspiration for a new option for small Oklahoma systems that can’t afford expensive new water treatment plants.

CAN’T SOMEONE ELSE DO IT?

Oklahoma’s water infrastructure needs are staggering.

“The next 50 years, infrastructure need is over $82 billion just in the state of Oklahoma for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure,” J.D. Strong with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board tells StateImpact.

Small systems are least able to afford such outlandish costs, can quickly max out their ability to get giant loans, and grant money is scant.

In early 2014, a for-profit company sprung out of Water4: Community Water Solutions. Since then, CWS project manager Tyler Butel has been pitching small town leaders on a way out.

“Rather than the town actually buying the system and running the system and removing the nitrates themselves, what we’ll do is actually put in that treatment part of it,” Butel says.

CWS will build a water treatment plant for a small town, with the company’s own money. The city doesn’t have to spend a dime on it.  To recoup the cost, CWS charges people for the clean water they use.

“But now what they’re paying for is nitrate-free water,” Butel says. “They’re not paying for a couple of vessels, and a bunch of pumps, and a salt tank, and whatever else is needed for that process.”

The company owns the plant. When it breaks down, it’s up to the company to fix it. Butel says CWS will only sell clean water, so there’s plenty of incentive to keep the system running properly.

“They could raise their water rates and get a big loan and put a system in, or we could put in a system for them and make sure they’re getting clean water,” Butel says.

A TOUGH SALE

None of this runs afoul of any state laws as far as the Water Board’s J.D. Strong knows. He says he welcomes creative solutions to Oklahoma’s multi-billion dollar water infrastructure problem.

“We’re somewhat used to that on our electric utilities, so it’s not a vastly different model for water utility,” Strong says.

But there are issues with turning water treatment over to a private company. It’s a big change from how treatment has always been done in Oklahoma.

“Can you trust them to operate it right? Can you trust them to be here 20 years from now, 30 years from now?” Strong asked.

Richard Raupe is mayor of Okarche, a small town just northwest of Oklahoma City with a nitrate problem CWS approached with its idea. Raupe thinks it has merit, but there’s a big sticking point:

“Well, we believe the town of Okarche should own their own water system and their own processing plant,” Raupe says.

So far, no towns have taken up CWS on its offers. That first customer is always the hardest to get.

originally published on October 8, 2014

originally published on July 16, 2015

As the lead-in-water crisis spreads to more public housing estates in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post’s BEN WESTCOTT and SAMUEL CHAN spoke to experts and reviewed laws to answer the issue’s major questions.

The fear over tainted water in Hong Kong has thrown hundreds of residents’ lives into chaos and left thousands more wondering if their water is safe to drink.

The discovery of lead at levels up to three times higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended level in drinking water from a public housing estate in Kowloon has grown to affect more than 1,500 local households.

Elderly Hongkongers have found themselves carting heavy containers of water to their flats, while the housing minister has been forced to apologise over confusing statements on the crisis.

Parents and homeowners have been left with dozens of questions – can I drink the water in my flat? Should I boil it? Will any lead in the water affect my children? Who is responsible for the affair?

The bad news for families who are concerned about their water quality is that lead can be extremely dangerous to drink, particularly for children who will be affected by smaller quantities than adults.

But that isn’t the whole story. There are ways you can be sure your water is safe to drink.

Water quality testing is available at certain laboratories in Hong Kong for people concerned about their tap water, and certain filters can be bought that will remove lead from your water supply.

Compared to other countries, Hong Kong has very strict guidelines about how much lead can be in tap water. It adheres to the World Health Organisation allotment of 10 micrograms per litre, less than in the United States or on the mainland.

Once the water has entered the private pipes in buildings, however, it is no longer the responsibility of the government and can become exposed to a range of chemicals, metals and bacteria from poorly maintained pipes.

How safe is it to drink Hong Kong’s tap water?

Hong Kong’s water, when it reaches the city’s water mains, is completely safe to drink, and complies with the WHO’s strict standards.

The problems start when it hits the pipes inside buildings both public and private across the city, which might not be regularly maintained and aren’t directly regulated by the government.

Once it has contact with these pipes, the quality of water can change dramatically.

How does Hong Kong’s limit on lead in tap water compare internationally?

Hong Kong allows up to 10 micrograms of lead per litre of the city’s tap water, the same as the WHO standard. This is the limit also used by Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.

The United States, however, will allow up to 15 micrograms of lead, while the mainland has a limit of 50 micrograms per litre.

Does lead affect people of all ages equally?

No. Young children in particular will be very vulnerable to damage from lead poisoning. Even smaller doses that wouldn’t affect an adult will have a serious effect on young people, including unborn children.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, over-exposure to lead can leave children irreversibly damaged both physically and mentally.

How much lead is too much?

Recommendations vary from country to country – the WHO recommends no more than 10 micrograms per litre of drinking water, while regulators in the United States allow 15 micrograms. Water samples from the Kai Ching Estate contained between 10.8 and 35.1 micrograms per litre.

But some experts said drinking water would need much higher concentrations of lead than this to become dangerous . It is also safe to shower and bathe in water with higher levels of lead concentration than is safe to drink.

Should I boil the water or get a filter to remove the lead?

Boiling the water will have no effect on the amount of lead and could in fact increase the concentration, as some water will evaporate, leaving the heavier lead behind.

Certain filters can remove lead from your water, but do research before you buy. Filters can be expensive and not all of them will be equally effective.

What kinds of buildings are most at risk?

Lead is no longer used as a component for making water pipes in post-war construction in the city, so lead or other harmful materials should not be present unless substandard construction supplies have been used. Under normal circumstances, lead will not appear as the pipes age.

The question may instead be whether the contracted developer of your unit block or house has used materials that adhere to the city’s safety standards.

How can I make sure the pipes at my housing estate or house are safe?

Take two water samples of 300ml each – one taken immediately after turning on the tap and the other taken two to eight minutes afterwards. Any sediment present in interior pipes should be shown in the first sample while the second sample is to get as close a result as possible to the water coming directly from the filtration plant.

Where can I take samples for testing and how much will it cost?

One major testing lab, the Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre, introduced a test for lead in a single water sample on Tuesday for HK$250, if one takes the samples to the centre.

The water container and tap nozzle should be disinfected to avoid any contamination that may interfere with the test results.

Results will be available in two working days.

If I live in a rented village house, which is not managed by a company, what can I do to ensure the tap water is safe to drink?

Taking your home water samples for testing should be the first step.

by Henry Brean, originally posted on June 10,  2015

Water that flows from taps across the valley exceeds all federal and state health standards, according to the Las Vegas Valley Water District’s annual Water Quality Report released last week.

But if our water is so safe, why does the district encourage pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems to consult a doctor about drinking it?

Think of it as a second opinion, said Bronson Mack, spokesman for the water district and its wholesale provider, the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

“Understand that our water meets or surpasses the standards set by the Safe Drinking Water Act,” he said. “But don’t take our word for it.”

The advice appears in several places in the 11-page report, including a page where it is displayed alongside a photo of an expectant mother sipping a glass of water.

“If you are pregnant or have a condition affecting your immune system, ask your physician whether a supplemental treatment system is appropriate,” the report said.

Mack said the water district began adding language like that to its annual reports about 12 years ago in response to “scare tactics” used to sell filtration systems to expectant mothers.

“That’s really just giving a public agency some cover … and making sure people are making the best decisions they possibly can with their doctor,” Mack said.

Dr. Staci McHale is an OB-GYN with a private practice in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t get a lot of questions about the safety of the valley’s tap water, maybe because her patients are already drinking the pricier stuff.

“Most of my patients show up with super-fancy bottles of water,” the doctor said.

McHale doesn’t typically recommend one source of water over another because the risk of bacterial contamination from bottled water, a filter-system or a plain old tap is so low it’s not really worth worrying about. It’s more important for her patients to stay hydrated, she said, as most pregnant women need about 100 ounces of water per day.

Fellow OB-GYN Keith Brill said he has never had an expectant mother ask him about the water quality in Las Vegas, and none of the doctors he works has gotten the question either.

But here’s Brill’s answer anyway: “I don’t think there’s any medical reason not to drink tap water. We just want them to drink water, period.”

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, utilities nationwide are required to report their water quality test results once a year. The cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas recently released their annual reports, but neither offers any special advice to pregnant women, though all valley utilities get their water from the same source.

The district’s latest report is based on more than 327,000 tests and some 36,000 water samples from hundreds of locations from Lake Mead to Summerlin in 2014.

Mack said the district screens for 91 regulated contaminants and 50 unregulated contaminants. A few of those substances now are found in the water supply where they didn’t before only because technological improvements enable their detection at once-undetectable concentrations of as little as 1 part-per-trillion, roughly the equivalent of a single drop in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The regulated contaminants most commonly found in local tap water are byproducts of the treatment process, which helps explain its occasionally off-putting flavor.

“People always equate the taste of their drinking water with the safety of their drinking water, but those two things are mutually exclusive,” Mack said.

Las Vegas water also is flavored by where it comes from. About 90 percent of the valley’s supply is pumped from Lake Mead, where it arrives by way of the silt-laden Colorado River. As a result, Las Vegas has some of the “hardest” water in the country as measured by its mineral content.

There isn’t much the water district can do about that, but the utility’s annual report does offer this advice: Maybe try it with a slice of lemon.

Water company now required to build treatment system to meet EPA standards

by Ryan Abella, originally published on June 2, 2015

KINGMAN – Valle Vista residents may have to rely on alternative sources of drinking water through 2015 due to elevated arsenic levels in the area’s water supply.

Truxton Canyon Water Company, the public water system in that area, issued notices to Valle Vista residents in May concerning drinking water.

Results from routine testing on April 7 showed that the water system exceeded the maximum containment level for arsenic at 11 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency requires public water systems to have 10 parts per billion or less for drinkable water.

This isn’t the first time the water company has had issues with arsenic levels. Truxton was hit by a slew of violations from the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2010, one of them being a continued violation of the maximum arsenic levels allowed. In a notice issued by Truxton in late 2010, they state that arsenic levels on average that year were 12 parts per billion.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality also filed a civil complaint and a preliminary injunction in October 2014 against Truxton for “exceedances of the arsenic maximum containment levels and for failing to comply with ADEQ’s past enforcement actions seeking Truxton to resolve their ongoing exceedances.”

Truxton and ADEQ agreed to resolve the issue on May 27, pending court approval.

Part of the agreement with Truxton requires the water company to start construction of an arsenic treatment system that will “consistently and reliably meet the arsenic maximum containment levels” within 210 days of the injunction, according to ADEQ’s public information officer Caroline Oppleman. The system must be completed and operational by May 2016.

Also required as part of the agreement is for Truxton to provide an alternate source of drinking water to its customers. The company is providing reverse-osmosis filtered water at their office located at 7313 E. Concho Drive as of Monday. Water customers can come in from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to fill one gallon per day, per person, per household. They will have to sign in each time they receive water.

This process has proven cumbersome for one customer.

“You have to provide your own container and have an appointment. You have to go to their office and sign up, and you have to be there at that time,” said Pat Fix, a resident of Valle Vista for over 10 years.

“They told us they put up a reverse osmosis machine behind the wall in the office. Someone else is filling up the water. When my friend went up there, they said you’ll have to come to sign up at their designated time. They’re making it as inconvenient as they can.”

According to Fix, she and other residents were told that they could use the water for bathing and cooking.

Anne Hopping, another resident of Valle Vista, tested her water in 2011 independently of Truxton. Her arsenic levels from the street to the house were at 25 parts per billion, well above the 13 parts per billion reported by Truxton. Hopping’s letter to the Miner in 2011 was forwarded to the EPA with no response.

“After it was tested, we had somebody from Home Depot put in a filter. We change it yearly. That water goes to our sink and our refrigerator – our drinking water,” said Hopping.

Truxton has emphasized in their notice that this isn’t an emergency, and that these arsenic levels are “not an immediate risk.”

Truxton declined to comment on the current situation. The office can be reached at (928) 757-2205 for more information and to schedule times to pick up water.

by David Zucchino

Duke Energy may have been hauled into federal court and smacked with a $102-million penalty for polluting North Carolina rivers with potentially toxic coal ash, but that didn’t do much for the tainted well water at Barbara Morales’ house.

Morales, 67, lives on fixed income in Belmont, just west of Charlotte. From her home, she can see Duke Energy’s Allen electric station on the Catawba River. Her well is a few hundred feet from two coal ash basins there.

Morales is one of at least 123 North Carolina residents who have received letters from state health and environmental officials warning them that their well water is contaminated and unsafe for drinking or cooking.

Morales said she hasn’t used her water since testing by an environmental group a year ago found elevated levels of dangerous compounds. Last week, Duke began delivering bottled water to her home – a gallon a day for each of the three people living there.

But neither the bottled water nor Duke’s guilty plea Thursday to polluting four rivers, including the Catawba, gives Morales much hope that her well will be restored.

“Duke just won’t admit their coal ash is poisoning my water,” she said. “They need to take responsibility.”

The predicament for Morales and others living near Duke’s 32 coal ash ponds in North Carolina is just one measure of the potential threat posed by 108 million tons of coal ash stored in the state in leaky pits, also called ponds, basins or lagoons.

Duke pleaded guilty Thursday to nine misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act, but environmentalists say the conviction does not require the utility to clean up coal ash ponds that still threaten waterways, wetlands and groundwater.

by Michael Paul Hill, originally published on March 6, 2015

In June of 1964, helicopters from the U.S. Geological Survey began spraying an herbicidal chemical along the Gila and San Carlos rivers. The chemical herbicide was used to remove salt cedars along the rivers so that water runoff from the rain would be maximized for commercial and industrial water use in lakes, rivers and streams. Salt cedar, an invasive plant species, was brought to the area from the Mediterrean and African regions. It grows along waterways and uses a lot of water in order to maintain its life.

This odorless herbicide’s scientific names are 2-4-5-TP or 2-4-5 D, but it’s commonly known as Agent Orange, one of the worst chemicals ever known to mankind. The herbicide was used to spray salt cedar on the San Carlos River and indigenous peoples in other parts of the world.

It was popularized during the Vietnam War when the United States sprayed this chemical on the high canopy tree stands of the Vietnamese forests to kill vegetation. Even U.S. veterans were victimized by this chemical, and to this day, those who had contact with Agent Orange have become sick with many types of diseases and cancers that were unknown prior to the creation of this dangerous chemical. Diseases associated with Agent Orange contamination include Type 2 diabetes, liver and heart disease, birth defects (two row teeth, cleft pallet) spina bifida, neuropathy, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, Alzheimer’s disease, and many others.

In 1969, areas near Kellner Canyon and Ice House Canyon near the Pinal Mountains were also sprayed for five years, and the San Carlos and Gila Rivers were contaminated. After the spraying in the off-reservation town of Globe, residents who were contaminated sued Dow Chemical, the makers of the Agent Orange, and the government of the United States. The case, Shoecraft V. Dow Chemical, went before the U.S. District in Phoenix and was settled out of court in the early 1980s. On the other hand, San Carlos Apache tribal members have yet to receive redress of their grievances, harm to health, and deaths that have been perpetuated by this witches brew.

Who are the makers of such witches brew and what it does?

Monsanto, the world’s largest agricultural corporation, along with Dow Chemical and DuPont are the creators of the witches brew called Agent Orange. Agent Orange was made for chemical warfare and was tested on the Apaches prior to the Vietnam War. Admiral Elmo Zumwelt of the Department of Navy was in charge of the Agent Orange spraying in Vietnam which was named Operation Ranch Hand. The way Agent Orange got it name was by the color stripe painted on the 55-gallon drum barrels.

Some of the other chemicals that were made during that time were Agent White, Agent Blue, and other lethal chemicals used now in food crops and herbicides in farmlands across the United States. Recently, the U.S. Forest Service used a different mixture of the 2-4-5- TP in the Tonto National Forest, which is now renamed 3-5-6-TP and is as deadly as the Agent Orange herbicide used salt cedars along the Gila and San Carlos rivers.

What do we do now?

In the 50th anniversary of spraying of Agent Orange occurred June 2014. Community members concerned about the effects of Agent Orange met in front of the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s offices to discuss legal remedies and redress for the harm and damages our people suffered. It’s also important to note that the United States government has breached its trust responsibility by spraying chemicals that are causing harm to the San Carlos Apache people.

It is prudent and just for us to hold those responsible for the after-effects of chemical spraying that was conducted without the free, prior and informed consent of San Carlos Apache tribal members. We all drink the water, including other indigenous nations downstream and citizens of Arizona who rely the polluted rivers of the San Carlos, Gila, and Salt rivers. It’s time to hold them accountable.

Michael Paul Hill is a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe who has been advocating for Indigenous rights, with an emphasis on cultural and spiritual rights, for several years in Apache territory, at the United Nations, and other places worldwide.

by Dan Weissmann, originally published on February 10, 2015

Greater Miami is a place where the idea of not having enough water seems completely bananas. South Florida receives about 60 inches of rainfall a year, and groundwater is more than plentiful. Keeping streets and homes from getting flooded with freshwater is still a huge job here.

But rising sea levels change things in unexpected ways, and seawater threatens to turn the drinking water salty. In some places, the ocean has already made good on that threat. And the problem is going to get worse.

To illustrate, Harold Wanless takes me out behind a car-rental place by the Miami airport. He’s a University of Miami geology professor who has spent decades studying how sea levels change, from the ice ages to today.

There’s a lot to see and hear in this little spot: two highways converging, planes flying overhead, Miami Jai-Alai, the Pink Pussycat Strip Club. (“Everything you want near an airport,” says Wanless. “I guess.”)

He’s chosen this location for two reasons. First, this entire area used to be part of the Everglades. “When they drained the Everglades here, water levels dropped about 7 feet,” he says. “And voila! You have an airport.”

Second, in this particular spot, a canal comes under those highways and hits a little barrier. This structure, several miles inland, is the boundary between the salty ocean water, and South Florida’s freshwater supply.

That water supply isn’t contained underground. “It goes right up to the surface,” says Wanless. “So, yeah – this is our aquifer. This is our water.”

And this is where the goal of managing freshwater flooding meets the threat of rising seas.

One of this little barrier’s main jobs is actually to get rid of freshwater after heavy rains, to prevent flooding. The gate opens and rainwater building up behind the dam spills out to sea.

There are dams like this all over the region. But for them to work – for the freshwater to spill – the seawater has to be lower than the gate.

Which it won’t be for much longer. “By the middle of the century, or before, 82 percent of these structures will no longer function,” Wanless says.

Meaning, if those gates got opened, seawater would flow in. And salt would contaminate the drinking-water supply.

Keeping the gate closed would mean flooding out areas on the freshwater side.

Miami Beach is spending up to $400 million on pumps to send floodwater out to sea.

But there’s another threat to drinking water, underground. And it’s already resulted in contaminated drinking-water wells in some cities here.

To see that threat, I went to West Palm Beach – the offices of the South Florida Water Management District – to meet Jayantha Obeysekera, a scientist there with the title chief modeler of hydrologic and environmental systems.

Essentially, he looks at the big picture, and he showed me what’s under South Florida. “This is a little prop that I use,” he says, pulling a piece of rock out of wrapping paper.

It’s called porous limestone. Before I got here, I was thinking, porous like a membrane – maybe a really thick, hard coffee filter? But no.

“This is like Swiss cheese,” says Obeysekera. “There are a lot of openings for water to move through.”

He’s understating things. Swiss cheese doesn’t have this many holes. This is all openings. It’s porous like a volleyball net.

And this is what makes South Florida’s problem with rising seas, well, special.

“People suggest, why don’t we do what the Dutch do,” says Obeysekera. “Build a levee and stop the seawater coming,”

With rock like this, that won’t work. A levee, says Obeysekera, “may stop the seawater storm surge on the surface, but the water will come underground.”

That’s what’s happening right now. And before seawater floods the land, it’s flowing into the water supply.

To describe that process, it will probably help if we first clear up a question: If there’s really no barrier between saltwater and fresh underground water, why isn’t all the drinking water salty already?

The reason is gravity. Saltwater is heavier than freshwater. Some seawater has always moved into the limestone, but it sits under the freshwater, which floats on top.

Then sea levels rise. Saltwater pushes up to where that freshwater was floating. It doesn’t have to push all the way to the surface to cause problems – just to the depth where the local well got sunk a few decades ago.

When that happens, “those well fields will be impacted,” says Obeysekera. “They will go salty.”

That’s already happened in parts of Broward County, north of Miami. Some municipalities there now get some of their water from a county facility farther inland.

The more sea levels rise, the farther inland the saltwater comes, and the more places get affected.

Jennifer Jurado directs Broward’s environmental planning division, which means she oversees the county’s long-term water planning. She shows me maps of where the saltwater has already come – and where it’s heading: Hollywood, Hallandale, Dania Beach, Fort Lauderdale … the list goes on.

“It’s quite significant,” says Jurado. And it’s not just Broward.

That’s why Wanless has spent almost 20 years trying to warn his neighbors across South Florida: They’d better start planning.

“If we get blindsided,” he says, “we’re a bunch of Okies.” As in: Dust Bowl refugees. No water, no viable anything. “It’s going to be ugly,” he says.

For years, his warnings got a less-than-warm reception. Then, gradually, things changed.

“It was maybe 2005 when I would give a talk to a Rotary or business group,” he says. “They stopped yelling obscenities, at the end or during the talk, and they started listening.”

A couple of years later, he says, there was another shift. “People were starting to hang around after talks,” he says. They wanted to know what they could do, what the community could do.

Now, he says, he hears from people who have helped themselves.

“It’s truly unbelievable,” he says, “the number of people that call me or send a note saying: ‘We had three or four properties. We just sold them and made a killing, and thank you so much.'”

Meaning, they’ve gotten out while property values are still high. “We’re truly entering a time of what will become real-estate roulette.”

Looking at projections on a 30-year horizon, he says – that’s as long as a mortgage.

Wanless is not alone in his thinking. I meet Rene Machado as he prepares for a round of golf in Coral Gables. He’s 75, moved here 10 years ago from New York — and he thinks Coral Gables is the best place on earth: lush, peaceful and close to downtown.

“It’s like being in New York City and living in Central Park,” he says. “How cool is that?” And, bonus: It’s never winter.

I ask if he thinks about the rising sea levels, the threat. He says, sure. All the time.

And yes, he thinks about how long he should keep owning a home here. “I would evaluate every five years,” he says. “I think after 10 years, I have to take it seriously.”

From the windows of his 24th-floor office in downtown Miami, land-use attorney Wayne Pathman has a panoramic view of Miami Beach and the central city. There are cranes everywhere, putting up new skyscrapers. Pathman has played a role in some of these projects.

However, he doesn’t think everything we see will survive the next few decades, as rising seas encroach.

“There are solutions,” he says. “Man has been very good at finding solutions. But I don’t think we’re saving everything.”

He’s been pushing for local officials to rethink building codes, to account for where sea-levels will be in a few decades.

“This is a very developed area – high-density population – and it’s coming,” he says. “And we keep building as if it’s not, and we keep living here as if it’s not.”

These new skyscrapers are just a small fraction of what he’s talking about. South Florida’s population was about 5 million in the year 2000. Now it’s almost 6 million and growing.

Defending structures against flooding, whether from storms or higher seas, seems like the most-immediate issue, but threats to the water supply can’t be ignored.

“Obviously, nobody lives here if we don’t have potable water,” Pathman says.

Not even behind a seawall.