Medford, Somerville Awarded Climate Resiliency Funding

MEDFORD, MA — Nine communities in the Mystic River Watershed collectively received close to $1.2 million in individual and regional Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness action grants for climate resilience efforts. Of this, nearly 75 percent went to two regional grants focused on managing physical and social harm from major coastal storms.

Each community is a member of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC), a voluntary partnership that has grown to 18 communities since its launch in September 2018. The RMC includes non-profit and private sector partners as content experts, with senior municipal staff serving as the group’s voting parties. Mystic River Watershed Association and Consensus Building Institute staff facilitate the RMC. These grants add to over $1.3 million in regional climate funding the coalition had already raised.

"The MVP program has been a game-changer in our watershed," Julie Wormser, deputy director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, said in a statement. "We would love to see it get much bigger with a dedicated source of funding. As it is, municipalities could use every penny in the program just in our watershed."

Medford received two grants totaling $101,395, which focus on increasing the social resilience of its most vulnerable residents. One grant is for equity-centered climate planning, and the other is for a suitability assessment for equitable, community-driven resilient hubs.

"I'm thrilled that the City of Medford applied for and is receiving two grants from the MVP program that are both designed to enhance our communications with diverse populations around the critical issue of climate change," Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said in a statement. "It is exciting that the Board of Health is working to understand the needs of socially vulnerable residents in the face of climate disruptions. The Office of Energy & Environment has been doing excellent work to understand the vulnerabilities of our city and this partnership with the Medford Family Network will expand its capacity to bring this information further into the community and hear concerns and needs from a diverse range of residents."

Somerville accepted a $389,995, 18-month regional grant on behalf of seven communities, including itself, Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Winthrop and Revere. This funding will allow these communities to work with critical regional infrastructure managers to identify operational and capital improvements needed to maintain business continuity and prevent harm to vulnerable residents and workers during and after extreme coastal storms.

"Somerville released its Climate Vulnerability Assessment in 2017, and one of the main things we learned is that Somerville can’t go it alone," Mayor Joseph Curtatone said in a release. "Particularly with coastal flooding, our municipal boundaries are meaningless. I’m proud that Somerville is leading this strong collaboration with the Mystic River Watershed Association and fellow cities, and we thank the EEA for recognizing that innovative work needs to be done to understand how climate change impacts our interconnected communities."

Chelsea and Everett partnered on a $454,555, 18-month grant to manage flooding from the Island End River. Woburn is getting $145,445 to expand the 20-acre Shaker Glen conservation area, de-pave and restore wetlands, improve water quality and alleviate urban flooding. Finally, Melrose is getting $70,313 to design a green infrastructure solution for the Melrose City Hall parking lot to alleviate regular flooding and provide downstream water quality improvements in the Mystic River Watershed.