A car stalls out in Fitchburg as Sunday’s rain soaked the region and is now putting dams to the test. (Chris Christo/Boston Herald)
Following days of pounding rain, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has announced the recipients of $5.6 million in grant funds aimed at shoring up the state’s coastal infrastructure and removing unsafe dams.
Administered through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Dam and Seawall program, according to Healey’s office the grants will fund projects in more than a dozen Commonwealth communities working to remove old and obsolete water barriers or repair “critical infrastructure” threatened by a changing climate.
“Last week, I saw firsthand the catastrophic flooding impacting many people’s personal and professional lives,” Healey said with the announcement of the grant awards. “As we continue to experience the impacts of climate change, it’s critical to invest in programs like this that will enhance our safety and infrastructure. We are proud to announce these awards, which will help us build a more resilient Massachusetts.”
Grant funds may be used for design work, construction, demolition or permitting, according to Healey’s office. This round of grant funding will help pay for four new construction projects and the design of 17 existing projects and relevant permit costs.
The Dam and Seawall program, signed into law by then-Gov. Deval Patrick in 2013, has awarded $120 million in grants and loans to “address deficient dams, seawalls, and levees” in the ten years since the program was created and funded with unused water abatement trust funds.
The program came about following a 2011 report by then State Auditor Joseph DeNucci showing 100 Massachusetts dams were in unsafe or poor condition. A nationwide study of dams conducted by the Associated Press in 2019 showed that number had dropped to less than 40.
“I know the financial difficulties many communities face in funding these projects,” Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, the former Mayor of Salem, said with the grant award announcement. “These grants enable municipalities of all sizes to address aging infrastructure immediately, and we’re acting now to ensure more resilient solutions can be implemented.”
Demolition of the more than 100-year-old High Street Dam, in Bridgewater, began Monday along the banks of the Bridgewater Town River. The 80-foot-long dam has been deemed “a significant potential hazard” and is blamed for local flooding.
That dam’s destruction, funded in part through state Dam and Seawall grants, will remove the first barrier migratory fish moving up the Taunton River from Narragansett Bay encounter, opening 10-miles of waterway to “alewife, blueback herring, American eel, sea lamprey, and American shad fish species,” according to a spokesperson representing the groups behind the demolition project.