SAUGUS — The Saugus River Watershed Council is hosting a public meeting Thursday to discuss the vulnerability of the Saugus River Watershed, which spans the town as well as the neighboring communities of Everett, Lynn, Malden, and Revere, and potential solutions for flooding in the area.
The meeting is being held on Zoom at 6 p.m. on Thursday, and represents the council’s first step in the process of garnering public feedback on the status of the watershed, said Mary Lester, the council’s events coordinator. In September 2022, the five communities were awarded $150,000 to split between them for a vulnerability and adaptation study of the watershed. Lester said the meeting represents a major step forward in using the funding.
“We’re looking to get feedback from people in the community that are having flooding issues that can enlighten us on what we should be doing,” she said.
Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta, the president of the council, said the meeting aims to provide a date on likely future flooding scenarios, develop an economic impact assessment, and increase public outreach and education.
“This project is the next step in identifying the region’s top vulnerabilities in order to adapt to climate change,” she said. “At the meeting, you will learn how Revere, Lynn, Saugus, Everett, and Malden communities better understand coastal flood risk and plan for the future.”
The communities had previously sought to tackle the issue individually, Lester said, explaining that the grant represents the first time they are all coming together to work on the vulnerability of the watershed, defined as “an area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet.” She said that convergence will be key in identifying solutions that work across each area, which is faced with different challenges.
The flooding issues “span beyond town or city lines,” she said, adding that the meeting is intended to help get a “better idea of where flooding is the worst” and identify solutions.
“We really want to know how the vulnerability affects residents,” Lester said.
Lester said the council will hold two more public meetings between Thursday and June, when the grant funding expires. She said she was hopeful that more funds would become available down the road.
Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson, whose official Twitter account promoted Thursday’s meeting, said the grant funds are particularly important to the city, considering its proximity to the coast and susceptibility to coastal erosion.
“We recognize that a regional approach is the most effective way to successfully adapt to a changing climate,” he said in a statement. “With the Saugus River Watershed vulnerability assessment, Lynn and our regional partners will identify priority projects to mitigate coastal flooding and develop a resiliency strategy to protect our City’s neighborhoods and commercial districts in the near term.”
The grant was issued by former Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration in August, part of the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program, which has issued grants to 97 percent of the state’s cities and towns.
The program is intended to help communities address ongoing climate change impacts, such as inland flooding, increase in storm events, sea level rise, drought, and extreme temperature.
