Climate change watch - Flooding will continue in Manhatten, wastewater treatment plants disabled, environmental refugees will come to New York looking for water

From Harper's Magazine, January, 2013 p.20

From Responding to Climate Change in New York State, a November 2011 report prepared for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns due to global warming are believed to have increased the risk of flooding in parts of the state, which was hit by Hurricane Sandy in October.

Sea-level-rise projections of five, twelve, and twenty-three inches at Manhattan’s Battery for the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s would result in four, sixteen, and 136 moderate flooding events each year, respectively. Under a rapid ice-melt scenario, New York State could experience between 200 and 275 moderate flooding events each year by 2080.

Many wastewater-treatment plants are located in floodplains, since this often coincides with a topographic low point and sewage can be conveyed to the plant by gravity. Raising the facility by several feet may prevent severe inundation.

Severe water shortages in western states, which are likely to become worse with climate change, may shift populations to eastern states, including New York. If so, New York could experience new population and economic growth with an associated increased demand for water.

Editor's note: Western New York has been derogatorily called the "rust belt" as people have moved south over the last couple of decades abandoning beautiful New York, but hold on to your property because we will be seeing a reverse tide. As the climate changes and things heat up people will migrate northward and want fresh water. Brockport will boom once again not so much because of the canal, although that helps for irrigation, cheap transportation, recreation, etc, but because of our proximity to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and the Finger Lakes.