BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker has announced $4 million in grant funding for coastal resiliency programs around the state, including local projects in Marblehead and Salem.
Marblehead received $131,705 for a vulnerability assessment of the Municipal Light Department – Hammond Park and adjoining public infrastructure, while Salem received a grant of $168,750 for a vulnerability assessment of the Palmer Cove area.
“Climate change presents challenges for Massachusetts coastal communities, which face increasing storm damage and flooding risks during high tides and coastal storms,” Baker said. “Our administration remains committed to providing necessary financial and technical support to proactively protect coastal infrastructure from these increasing threats.”
The funding was awarded by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ (EEA) Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Coastal Resilience Grant program, which provides financial and technical assistance for local efforts to analyze vulnerabilities to climate impacts, increase community awareness and understanding of these issues, plan for changing conditions, redesign vulnerable community facilities and infrastructure and restore shoreline systems. The grants are supplemented by local funding matches.
Marblehead’s project will help to develop alternatives to mitigate flooding and sea-level rise impacts in the specified infrastructure areas. It will implement short-term floodproofing measures while also identifying long-term adaptation strategies.
In Salem, the Palmer Cove area of the Point neighborhood is at risk of severe flooding and climate change impacts. The grant project will develop a model of the area’s current and future climate risks, analyze alternatives and conduct an intensive multilingual outreach and engagement campaign in the community.
“CZM is very pleased to support on-the-ground construction of shoreline restoration projects this year, along with planning and design projects that will contribute to a more resilient commonwealth in the future,” said CZM Director Lisa Berry Engler. “We congratulate all of the Coastal Resilience Grant recipients, and look forward to another year of successful projects.”
Other communities which received grants are Braintree, Chatham, Dartmouth, Edgartown, Falmouth, Gosnold, Hingham, Hull, Ipswich, Marion, Mattapoisett, Orleans, Tisbury, Wareham and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
