Seawater intrusion in Delaware used to be an invisible threat, but that’s not the case anymore.
It's a complex process and can happen for different reasons, with varying factors including sea level rise, frequency of coastal storms, and how we manage our land.
Seawater intrusion is not unique to Delaware; it's prevalent in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and in certain areas across the globe.
"Right now you can actually see visible salt patches on the soil surface, and that gives you a stunning clue into this silent disease. It's not silent anymore. Now we are seeing our crops dying, but also that piece of land is completely bare because the salinity is so high that no plant can survive there," according to Pinki Mondal, environmental geographer and associate professor at the University of Delaware.
Mondal notes monitoring shows the number of salt patches in Delaware doubled from 2011 to 2017 and that marshland has been slowly overtaking agricultural land.
She says there are no easy solutions.
"It's almost like we want to work against nature, and if that's the case for how long we can maintain that relationship," Mondal said. "Or, should we just work with nature and see for how long we can save this land for our future generations. So, it's a very tricky situation."
Mondal adds that crops like corn and soybeans are the most affected by the high salinity from the intrusion.
