In response to rampant development and chronic flooding, local officials are working to address the impacts of climate change in frontline communities.
By Jordyn Kalman and Trista Brophy
(Published July 2021)
Editor’s note: This story was written as a part of the University of Florida Environmental Justice Media Intensive, hosted by the UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute and the UF Levin College of Law’s Public Interest Environmental Conference.
Walter Smith’s family has lived in East Ybor for 120 years. Locals call the area “the bottom” because it sits at the bottom of a drainage area, and when it rains, water rolls down and collects in the streets with nowhere else to go.
“This is a very big issue,” Smith said. “And it's one that is dangerous for anybody, but it's extremely dangerous for the Black community, which usually gets the worst of it.”
The Tampa Bay metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and others, hasn’t suffered a direct hit from a category three or higher hurricane since 1921 — but it’s regularly struggling with flooded streets, businesses and homes. Reports routinely list the area as one of the most vulnerable to flooding and damage in the U.S. According to a natural hazard guide by Tampa’s Office of Emergency Management, the city is at high risk of coastal, riverine and inland flooding due to heavy rain and severe storms that drainage systems aren’t built to handle.
Despite the risks from extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, there’s rampant development in the area, contributing to intense urban flooding in many areas of town.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area is majority white, and has a significant and growing Latinx population, according to Census Reporter. In Tampa Bay, both affluent and low-income neighborhoods flood, as does downtown. But communities of color and low-income residents often take the brunt of the impact, facing a greater risk of property loss, health problems and economic hardship. This is due to systemic issues stemming from decades of discrimination, Smith said.
“What they [the city of Tampa] don't recognize, and they still don't to a certain degree today, is the correlation and intersectionality of what they've faced over the years and what's been happening in the environment.” Smith said.
Many of these issues can be traced back to the practice of redlining, Smith said, which occurred in the 1930’s but has had a lasting impact on the city. Redlining is when the worst land is intentionally given to the people who are considered to be “undesirables” by the government to keep them away from funding and separate the rest of the population.
Mapping America: Redlining in New Deal America compiles data from the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), which assigned grades to residential neighborhoods that reflected their "mortgage security" from 1935-1940. Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of "A," colored green, were deemed minimal risks for banks, and those receiving the lowest grade of "D," colored red, were considered "hazardous."
Tampa, Ybor, Sulphur Springs, Tampa Heights, West Tampa, and Seminole Heights, which have majority Black populations, were all given “D” ratings, according to the database, while predominantly white neighborhoods like Hyde Park and Bayshore were all given “A” ratings.
The low-ranking neighborhoods are the same areas where Smith has seen firsthand the effects of urban flooding because the water runs downhill into those particular areas.
“You come into parts of West Tampa, it was terrible,” Smith said. “I have pictures of myself standing and wading through water. I’m six feet tall. It was ankle deep.”
Sulphur Springs suffers from the same problem, Smith said, even though the area actually sits above the Hillsborough River and is not marked as a risk on current FEMA flood maps. The flooding is due to depressions in the area that the current pipes are not equipped to handle when it rains.
Tampa Bay, which sits on Florida’s Gulf Coast, is a top tourist destination for its pristine beaches and warm weather. Florida doesn’t have a state income tax, which motivates cities to keep developing. The American Legislative Exchange Council reports that over the past decade the nine states without a personal income tax have consistently outperformed the nine states with the highest taxes on personal income, GDP growth, employment growth and in-state migration.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan statistical area has emerged as a leader in economic growth and development, ranking 26th in productivity according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. It is home to a thriving real estate industry, financial services industry, tourism industry, three major sports teams and two major military bases.
Despite the benefits of development for the local economy, these areas are becoming riskier to settle down in due to heavy rains, sea level rise and chronic flooding.
This is because development removes natural vegetation and covers the ground with impervious surfaces that do not allow precipitation to drain. Currently, the Tampa Bay area, which includes Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas counties, has a population around 3 million people which is expected to increase by 25% by 2045. As Tampa Bay’s population and impervious surfaces increase, so does the risk of flooding if measures aren’t taken to mitigate it.
This increased risk of flooding is worsened by the area’s projections for rising sea levels. Scientists estimate the Tampa Bay region will experience between 1.9 and 8.5 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100, according to the Tampa Bay Climate Science Advisory Panel. These higher sea levels can increase the flood risk for even the smallest of storms.
When storms pass through, winds can push a wall of water, known as storm surge, onto shore further adding to flood levels. According to the National Hurricane Center, during Tropical Storm Eta, Tampa Bay experienced between 2 and 4 feet of storm surges, that ravaged coastlines, flooded roads and gushed into residential homes without ever touching ground in the area. Statewide rainfall levels have also increased by a half-inch over the last decade, according to the National Climate Data Center, further exacerbating flooding issues.
And, combined with these risks is city infrastructure that isn’t equipped to handle rising sea levels. CJ Reynolds, director of resiliency and engagement, said sea level rise hinders a stormwater outfall’s ability to drain the impervious surfaces in the cities. An outfall is where stormwater exits the system of pipes, ditches, swales and other infrastructure. If the sea level is rising up to the same level as the outfall, the system may not be able to drain and could even push stormwater back into the streets.
Local governments are starting to conduct analyses on these outfalls that will assess their drainage capacity, Reynolds said. But the problem isn’t limited to more rainfall or higher sea levels.
“We have more development, more concrete, that forces it all to go somewhere,” Reynolds said. “So, some of the cities and counties are looking at those things as part of a large critical vulnerability assessment.”
Tampa has only recently started addressing flooding and stormwater management through a comprehensive lens that includes climate change and environmental justice by appointing the city's first sustainability and resiliency director, Whit Rhemer, in 2019.
Rhemer, along with an advisory team, are in the final stages of designing a roadmap with initiatives to reduce flooding, improve the aesthetics of stormwater ponds and address the depreciation of property values around stormwater ponds. The roadmap is being finalized and will be available to the public in the next few months.
“You can’t really talk about environmental justice with just a lens on the built environment,” Rhemer said. “It’s also connected to economic justice and socioeconomic opportunity.”
In South Tampa, projects funded by a $251 million stormwater improvement assessment approved in 2016 are currently underway to tackle continually flooded streets. The city intends to collect funds for the Improvement Assessment over 30 years through taxes.
The assessment, which doesn’t take wealth into consideration, is currently budgeted for five regional projects, all located in the basin south of Fowler Ave, along with other improvements.The projects call for new pipelines, pump stations and road regrading. By September 2020, the city had spent about $39 million of the $11,657,587 total collected for the year.
To prioritize potential stormwater management projects, city engineers examine the benefits and the costs, city engineer Ben Allushuski said.
But income of the area is not a factor in the ranking, he said.
Walter Smith, from East Ybor, said that while low-income and communities of color are bearing the economic burden of flooding, projects aimed at improving stormwater management — funded by taxpayer dollars — are not being planned with these communities in mind. Many people don’t have the information they need to ask questions or advocate for them.
“In some cases they’re scared because they don't know they're gonna lose their jobs or not, and in other cases they're scared because it's happened so much, they're thinking nobody's gonna do anything about it.”
Smith, who is a part of the Tampa Bay Disaster Resilience Initiative, which is a coalition of non-government organizations, government organizations, and people from frontline communities that works with community leaders to help address some of these vulnerabilities. The goal of the initiative is to mobilize the people of these communities so, in the event of a disaster, the community will be able to bounce back in a self-sufficient manner.
The city is also taking some steps to address equity when it comes to flooding and climate change: In January 2020, the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council announced that its plan for resilience would integrate equity. Simone Chapman, the Gulf Research Program Science Policy Fellow at TBRPC, is conducting research on how the council can plan for a more resilient environment in places that are historically disinvested, haven’t had a lot of built infrastructure or don’t even have a lot of knowledge that they are socially vulnerable to hazards.
Chapman is working with University of South Florida students to conduct a mapping assessment of flood risk for 10 cities or neighborhoods in the Tampa Bay region, which will assess how many people and homes are at varying flood risks through 2070, including demographic and infrastructure information. The resulting package will be shared with local governments to help them address high-risk communities with adaptation strategies.
Chapman said she is hopeful that “the framework the council is working on will be a model and sets the tone for other regions and other states across the nation.”
Experts across Tampa Bay are hopeful that the city will better address environmental justice and social inequities in our stormwater planning as we move forward. Rhemer acknowledges that other cities, like St. Pete, Miami, and Orlando, have been ahead of the curve, but believes that gives Tampa the advantage of being able to learn from and improve on other communities' strategies.
Smith acknowledges that the city of Tampa has taken the first steps of recognizing there is a problem.
“They're working towards it, in all fairness,” Smith said, adding that he hopes others like him will start to talk about what's happening in order to bring more attention to the flooding in his area.
“That's the toughest part. It's like having an abused child, beaten for the longest time and all you want is for them to tell somebody,” Smith said. “That's why you don't see many black professionals, like myself, standing up and saying anything about us.”
About the Authors
Trista Brophy is a Ph.D. student studying interdisciplinary ecology with a concentration in urban and regional planning at the University of Florida. She also holds master's degrees in global sustainability and environmental science & policy from the University of South Florida. Prior to UF, Trista worked as the sustainability coordinator for the City of Oldsmar, Florida and as a water demand associate at Tampa Bay Water. Her research focuses on progressing stormwater resiliency planning through GIS, remote sensing, and big data. After graduation, Trista plans to continue her work in government, where she hopes to guide policy and planning decisions to improve watershed management and reduce urban flooding.
Jordyn Kalman is an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in environmental justice & policy and a concentration in film & media Studies at the University of Florida. During her time at UF, she has worked for The Independent Florida Alligator and WUFT News in various roles including news reporter, digital producer, and production assistant. After graduation, she hopes to combine her communication skills and passion for the environment to continue telling stories that engage others in the natural world, serve the community, and inspire change.
The University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute is advancing communication and education of Earth systems science in a way that inspires Floridians to be effective stewards of our planet.