Our Blog

This week, Miami Waterkeeper participated in a mobile workshop for The Funders' Network Annual Conference. This year's conference focused on how Miami is grappling with the stark realities of climate change and other environmental threats. The conference theme, Power Forward, included a call to action "for philanthropy to leverage the sector's collective power to create communities and regions that are truly sustainable and just." Tour leaders spoke on these themes during a mobile workshop boat cruise around Biscayne Bay and the Miami River.

Urban Nature, a digital series on WTTW, the PBS member station in Chicago, recently did a segment on sea level rise in Miami. Our Executive Director, Rachel Silverstein, was featured in this segment discussing sea level rise and the additional problems Miami might face in the near future due to flooding.

Ultra is an annual electronic music festival that was founded in 1999 in Miami. This annual event has brought hundreds of thousands of people to Downtown Miami over the past several years, but residents complained about the noise and crowds. At the end of last year, the City of Miami City Commission voted against a contract that would keep it at its downtown home, Bayfront Park, for the next 5 years. Instead, the music festival will be held on Virginia Key at the Miami Marine Stadium and Virginia Key Beach Park. Many from the Village of Key Biscayne, community leaders and advocacy groups, have pushed back against this decision due to traffic, noise, and environmental concerns.

WASHINGTON – A judicial panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission late yesterday agreed to review two measures brought by environmental groups on the proposed license extension of the Turkey Point reactor in Florida. But the panel, the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board, rejected requests to consider the impact of sea-level rise on the plant, which is south of Miami.  

Turkey Point, owned by Florida Power & Light, is the first nuclear facility to seek a license to operate for 80 years. If it gets the license, it can stay in operation until 2053. The petitions were brought by Miami Waterkeeper, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Friends of the Earth. 

Join Miami Waterkeeper in welcoming our new Program Director, Laura Chaibongsai! Laura joined our team in February 2019, and we’re very excited to be working with her!

On February 27th, 2019, we were joined by the Microsoft Cities Civic Engagement Team, The Miami Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, local community leaders, elected officials, and their staff on a boat tour to discuss issues Biscayne Bay faces and various efforts to being made throughout Miami-Dade County to mitigate those issues. The Day on the Bay tour is a learning experience that allows public officials and community leaders to interact and learn from local scientific experts.

On Sunday, March 3, 2019, Miami Waterkeeper and Ransom Everglades School conducted a monthly Boat Patrol. The patrol traveled up the Gables Waterway while our Miami Waterkeeper, Rachel Silverstein, discussed the importance of living shorelines with students. Living shorelines provide important wildlife habitat and also build our waterfront's resilience to storm surge and sea level rise. Students practiced identifying different types of shorelines, including seawalls, rip rap, rock, and mangroves. Our diligent students also kept a keen eye out for marine debris on the water, being sure to pick up balloons from mangrove roots, as well as balls and bottles drifting with the current.  

We were so honored join Facebook for the launch party of their gorgeous new office – overlooking Biscayne Bay!  Thank you for highlighting our mission to ensure access to swimmable, fishable, and drinkable water.

Join Miami Waterkeeper in welcoming our new office manager, Carla Lovinsky! Carla joined our team in November 2018, and we’re very excited to be working with her!

This morning, February 28^th, the Miami Waterkeeper team provided comments at City Hall in support of a City of Miami resolution that would ban the use of herbicides containing the ingredient glyphosate. In the last year, the City of Miami used almost 5,000 gallons of herbicide containing glyphosate on city property. To address this problem, Commissioner Ken Russell sponsored a resolution that would make it City policy to use more environmentally friendly alternatives.