Stormwater flooding in Medford, MA (credit: Erica Wood)
Projects will support coastal and stormwater flood resilience projects from Woburn to Revere
Arlington, MA, March 17, 2022 —When President Biden signed the Fiscal Year 2022 Federal Appropriations bill into law on March 15th, it included $4.3 million in critical funding for four local flood resilience projects championed by Congresswomen Katherine Clark and Ayanna Pressley. Below are statements from each congresswoman with a link to all ten Community Project grants they each secured.
“These investments are a direct response to the needs of our local community,” said Congresswoman Clark. “ We are improving our climate readiness through green infrastructure, investing in higher education for underserved youth, expanding accessibility for community health care services, and much more. These projects will undoubtedly improve the lives of residents in the Fifth District and the long-term welfare of our community.”
“I’m so proud to have secured funding for these projects, which will bring resources directly to workers and families across our district,” said Congresswoman Pressley. “Each of these community-supported and community-driven initiatives will improve the lives of people across the district and will support investments in our schools, our infrastructure, our health care, and most importantly, our people.”
Each of the municipalities that championed these climate resilient projects is a founding member of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC), a watershed-wide voluntary partnership focused on regional climate resilience. Convened by MyRWA in September 2018 and led by senior staff from 20 cities and towns and non-governmental partners, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) focuses on managing stormwater and coastal flooding on a regional scale, and increasing the resilience of our most vulnerable residents and workers to extreme weather. These projects are the result of years of analysis and design by both individual communities and multiple municipalities working collectively.
“Our cities and towns are where climate resilience either happens or doesn’t,” said Julie Wormser, Senior Policy Advisor for the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA). “RMC municipal staff are doing extraordinary work to understand how best to protect their people and places from harm. These federal investments are both a recognition of and critical support for their great work.”
Congresswoman Clark secured a $750,000 earmark for a regional project sponsored by the Town of Arlington to reduce the risk of coastal flooding to ten vulnerable communities in the Boston area: Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Revere, and Watertown.
"Arlington may not seem like a coastal community, but sea level rise and extreme coastal storms will bring ocean water all the way to the Mystic Lakes without intervention," said Jenny Raitt, Director of Planning & Community Development. "This investment into regional flood resilience is a critical first step to keeping tens of thousands of people and billions of dollars in homes and businesses safe for decades to come and aligns with the Town’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness planning initiatives and other town-wide and regional goals.”
“You can’t negotiate with the ocean,” said Cambridge’s City Engineer, Katherine Watkins. “As sea levels rise and storm intensity increases, we have to continue working together as a region to fund projects that will reduce our risk to coastal flooding. This funding will support critical work to eliminate up to ten key coastal flood pathways, including the Charles River and Amelia Earhart Dams, Draw 7 Park and the Island End River shoreline.”
Congresswoman Clark also secured $262,500 for an 11.3 acre green infrastructure project in Woburn that will expand and restore wetlands, help manage regional stormwater flooding, and provide active and passive outdoor recreation opportunities within walking distance of low-income environmental justice residents.
"Sometimes climate resilience is really, really beautiful," said Jay Corey, Woburn's City Engineer. "This $266,500 in funding for Hurld Park will decrease water pollution and flooding from extreme rainfall events while providing cooling oases for people to escape summer heat waves."
In addition, Congresswoman Pressley secured $2.5 million for the City of Somerville’s Poplar Street Pump Station & Art Farm project, which will help the community manage flooding and water pollution from extreme rainfall events while creating an open community space and arts facilities designed to foster community engagement, learning, and creativity.
“Preparing for climate change-driven extreme weather will require communities to spend millions of dollars on new and upgraded infrastructure,” said Rich Raiche, Somerville’s Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management. “This project shows how these investments can also serve to bring people together and make our cities more vibrant.”
Finally, Congresswoman Pressley secured $750,000 for a regional coastal flood barrier along Chelsea and Everett’s Island End River. This project will provide critical coastal flood protection for densely populated environmental justice neighborhoods that host life-critical food and energy infrastructure.
“I want to thank Congresswoman Pressley and our entire congressional delegation for once again leading the way on climate resiliency,” said City of Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria. “Over the past few years our residents and businesses have experienced the consequences of extreme weather and we are working with our municipal, state, and federal partners to protect them as soon as possible. We know here in Everett, climate change is not coming, it has already arrived.”
"Chelsea and Everett, two environmental justice communities, in close partnership with GreenRoots and MyRWA, are striving to protect our communities from coastal flooding. This project will safeguard dense residential neighborhoods, the Northeast’s fresh produce supply, and major energy facilities," said Alex Train, Chelsea's Director of Housing & Community Development. "This $750,000 grant could not have come at a better time."
For a full list of Massachusetts Community Project grants go to: https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/massachusetts-delegation-announces-138
For more information, please contact Julie Wormser at julie.wormser@mysticriver.org ((c) (508) 713-2459)
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Mystic River Watershed at a Glance
The 76-square-mile Mystic River Watershed stretches from Reading through the northern shoreline of Boston Harbor to Revere. An Anglicized version of the Pequot word missi-tuk (“large river with wind- and tide-driven waves”), it is now one of New England’s most densely populated, urbanized watersheds.
The seven-mile Mystic River and its tributaries represented an early economic engine for colonial Boston. Ten shipyards built more than 500 clipper ships in the 1800s before roads and railways replaced schooners and steamships. Tide-driven mills, brickyards and tanneries along both banks of the river brought both wealth and pollution.
In the 1960s, the Amelia Earhart Dam transformed much of the river into a freshwater impoundment, while construction of Interstate 93 filled in wetlands and dramatically changed the river’s course. Since then, many former industrial sites have been cleaned up and redeveloped into new commercial areas and residential communities.
The Mystic is facing growing climate-related challenges: coastal and stormwater flooding, extreme storms, heat, drought and unpredictable seasonal weather.The watershed is relatively low-lying and extensively developed, making it prone to both freshwater and coastal flooding.Its 21 municipalities are home to 600,000 residents, including many who are disproportionately vulnerable to extreme weather: environmental justice communities, new Americans, residents of color, elders, low-income residents and employees, people living with disabilities and English-language learners.
