Lynn, Saugus, Revere, Malden, and Everett will share more than $150,000 in funding for a Regional Saugus River Watershed Vulnerability and Adaptation Study, part of more than $32 million in climate change funding going to communities across the state.
The funds will be used to identify climate hazards, develop strategies to improve resilience, and implement priority actions to adapt to climate change in each of the communities included in the grants, which Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito’s administration announced Tuesday. The Baker-Polito has now awarded $100 million to 97 percent of the Commonwealth’s cities and towns through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program.
“Since we started the program in 2017, the MVP program has played a large role in helping cities and towns across the state fight climate change by investing $100 million in 341 municipalities, or 97 percent of the Commonwealth’s communities,” said Baker. “With this latest round of funding, we are making the single largest investment in the program by directing nearly $33 million towards critical climate resilience projects throughout Massachusetts.”
The program pairs local leadership and knowledge with a significant investment of resources and funding from the state to address ongoing climate change impacts, such as inland flooding, increase in storm events, sea level rise, drought, and extreme temperatures. Of the $32.8 million in grants announced, $32.6 million was awarded to 73 municipal projects that build local resilience to climate change.
“This is the sixth round of MVP funding, and we are making a major push forward by funding more climate resilience implementation projects than ever before,” said Polito. “It has been rewarding to see projects move through the phases from planning to design to construction and implementation over the last five years, and we are starting to see the tangible difference these projects are making in our communities as we prepare for a changing climate.”
The study will provide a detailed vulnerability and risk assessment of municipal infrastructure and natural resources to develop targeted regional strategies to reduce risks from increased coastal storm intensity, sea level rise, and storm surge.
The project will also pilot coastal and stormwater 2-D modeling on the Malden/Everett line to address the cumulative effects of ocean-based and meteorological storms.
The state will also prepare an economic impact analysis to quantify the vulnerability assessment results to determine support for future grant efforts.
A total of 73 communities were included in the most recent round of funding.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
